Martin snatches pole, Marquez sixth for Ducati debut

Pramac rider Martin posted a sensational 1m50.789s flying lap on his first run in Saturday’s afternoon qualifying session to take the spot by 0.083 seconds over the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro.

The Spanish rider, runner-up in the championship to Francesco Bagnaia last year, was on course to better his time on his final effort but his lap was cancelled due to yellow flags deployed in response to a crash for KTM’s Brad Binder.

Although Martin’s original time was two tenths quicker than what Bagnaia had managed in much more favourable conditions during last month’s pre-season test in Qatar, it appeared it wouldn’t be good enough for pole position as the riders returned to the track for their second runs.

Indeed, Bagnaia himself was a tenth up on Martin’s time going into the final sector, but a mistake coming out of Turn 15 left him wide and cost him a significant chunk of time, even as his lap was counted towards qualifying.

That left Espargaro as the closest challenger to Martin, with Enea Bastianini on the other factory Ducati claiming the final spot on the front row with a time of 1m50.875s – just 0.003s slower than his Aprilia rival.

Binder was able to get himself up to fourth and ahead of Bagnaia before his late crash, with the latter unable to improve on his 1m50.928s effort in the final moments of qualifying.

Competing in his first race weekend on the Gresini Ducati, six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez put in a solid effort to end up sixth and the last of the riders to breach the 1m51s barrier in qualifying.

Last year’s Qatar GP winner Fabio Di Giannantonio was next up on the VR46 Ducati, as just 0.230s separated the top seven riders in Q2.

Tech3 GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta couldn’t replicate the pace he showed on Friday, but still finished a solid eighth in his first MotoGP qualifying, beating the Gresini Ducati of final practice pacesetter Alex Marquez.

He was followed by the second factory Aprilia of Maverick Vinales, KTM rider Jack Miller and Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez – the last two making their way through from the opening leg of qualifying.

LCR’s Johann Zarco was the first rider not to make it to the second part of the qualifying, the Frenchman missing the Q2 cut just one hundredth of a second to Miller as the top Honda runner.

He will head the fifth row of the grid, where he will be joined by Trackhouse…