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MotoGP British GP: Aprilia’s Espargaro stuns Ducatis to take pole

Aleix Espargaro claimed pole position for Aprilia in the British Grand Prix, beating the factory Ducati MotoGP bikes of Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini.

Espargaro delivered an impressive effort of 1m57.309s in the dying minutes of qualifying, taking advantage of late troubles for Bagnaia and Bastianini to put himself in prime position to repeat his grand prix victory from 2023.

Jorge Martin qualified fourth on the Pramac Ducati, while Marc Marquez ended up down in seventh on his year-old Gresini GP23.

As soon as Q2 began, Bagnaia started lighting up the timesheets and broke the 1m58s barrier on his first flyer before smashing the lap record next time out with a 1m57.517s.

Bastianini made it a provisional 1-2 for the factory Ducati team on a 1m57.693s, while Martin - who had topped all sessions coming into qualifying - only third on the Pramac-entered GP24 after losing time in the final sector.

Espargaro was only fourth after the first runs, facing a small but significant deficit to the three Ducatis ahead.

However, the second runs were anything but smooth for Ducati riders. First Bagnaia had to abandon a flying lap, after some debris got stuck on his visor, then TV images showed Bastianini slowing down and letting other bikes go through.

The story was similar for Marquez, who seemed visibly frustrated at being held back by the two VR46 GP23s running right in front of him.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

All of that allowed Espargaro to leapfrog the Ducatis and claim his first pole position of the season, two tenths clear of Bagnaia - who was unable to improve his time on his final effort.

Third and fourth places went to Bastianini and Martin, who also could not go any faster than they did in their first runs.

Alex Marquez managed to jump to fifth at the end on his Gresini bike, beating the top KTM of Brad Binder and his elder brother Marc, who was consigned to seventh.

Maverick Vinales crashed out at Farm corner late on in qualifying and ended up a distant eighth, eight tenths down on his polesitting team-mate, while Pedro Acosta made his way from Q1 to qualify ninth for Tech3 GasGas.

VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi appeared to be off the pace and ended up 10th and 12th respectively, separated by the second factory KTM of Jack Miller - who was unable to carry his Friday practice pace into qualifying.

Pramac rider Franco Morbidelli and Trackhouse Racing duo Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira were split by just over half a tenth in Q1, qualifying 13th, 14th and 15th respectively.

LCR rider Johann Zarco led the unofficial ‘Japanese Cup’ for Honda in 15th place, two places ahead of the top Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo.

Remy Gardner, replacing the injured Alex Rins on the sister M1, qualified last in 22nd place.

MotoGP British GP Qualifying results

   
1
 - 
3
   
Cla Rider # Bike Time km/h
1 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia

1'57.309

180.784
2 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati

+0.208

1'57.517

180.464
3 Italy E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati

+0.384

1'57.693

180.194
4 Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati

+0.425

1'57.734

180.131
5 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati

+0.508

1'57.817

180.004
6 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM

+0.641

1'57.950

179.801
7 Spain M. Marquez Gresini Racing 93 Ducati

+0.789

1'58.098

179.576
8 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia

+0.828

1'58.137

179.517
9 Spain P. Acosta Tech 3 31 KTM

+1.003

1'58.312

179.251
10 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46 49 Ducati

+1.062

1'58.371

179.162
11 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM

+1.427

1'58.736

178.611
12 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati

+2.362

1'59.671

177.215
13 Italy F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing 21 Ducati

+1.290

1'58.599

178.817
14 Spain R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team 25 Aprilia

+1.299

1'58.608

178.804
15 Portugal M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team 88 Aprilia

+1.346

1'58.655

178.733
16 France J. Zarco Team LCR 5 Honda

+1.421

1'58.730

178.620
17 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM

+1.703

1'59.012

178.197
18 France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha

+1.783

1'59.092

178.077
19 Italy L. Marini Repsol Honda Team 10 Honda

+1.788

1'59.097

178.069
20 Spain J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda

+2.159

1'59.468

177.516
21 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda

+2.513

1'59.822

176.992
22 Australia R. Gardner Yamaha Factory Racing 87 Yamaha

+2.578

1'59.887

176.896
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