On the second qualifying round at the Circuito de Jerez this weekend for MotoGP, Francesco Bagnaia, of the Ducati Lenovo Team, set an all-time lap record of 1:36.170 denying Fabio Quartararo his fifth-straight pole position in Andalucia.
The first part of qualifying saw a bit of drama as Pramac Racing’s Jorge Martin crashed in the first corner of the track. Following this, it was back to business with the rest of the racers in the qualifying round of the Spanish GP with Quartararo leading the charge with a time of 1:36.790. Bagnaia, was at the top of the leaderboards for a bit, logging a time of 1:36.863, before Quartararo snatched the pole away.
It took another three minutes in the session for something extraordinary to happen. Not only did Bagnaia beat Quartararo, but he was also clear by over six-tenths of a second recording a 1:36.170, and smashing the lap record at Jerez which stood at 1:36.70 by none other than Fabio Quartararo himself did in the 2020 GP. Bagnaia now holds the current lap record, even if the Frenchman was able to log a personal best of 1:37.623 this weekend at Jerez.
With the record in the books the defending champion, not to be outdone by the Italian, launched a counter-time attack pushing to match or beat the Italian’s time. The assault saw Quartararo improve his lap time, but once the cards were down, he was still about four-tenths of a second (+0.453) slower than Bagnaia’s record-breaking lap.
As it stands, Francesco Bagnaia will be taking the first pole position at Jerez this weekend, for the Ducati Lenovo Team, followed by Fabio Quartararo for Yamaha, and Aleix Espargaro for Aprilia. The top three pole positions for the Spanish GP logged qualifying time in the 36s but only Bagnaia was able to get extraordinarily close to a sub-36-second lap time.
The Spanish GP could be an exciting race to watch this weekend, and the event kicks off later at 2:00 pm local time. With Quartararo starting from the second pole position, and with Bagnaia in first, there is no doubt that the French racer will be fired up. On the other hand, Bagnaia looks to be in top form at Jerez this weekend and will surely put up a fight.
