MotoGP San Marino GP: Marco Bezzecchi stuns Ducati…

Marco Bezzecchi smashed the Misano circuit record to claim his second consecutive pole position of the 2026 MotoGP season at the San Marino Grand Prix.

The factory Aprilia rider posted an incredible time of 1m29.982s on his first run in qualifying, beating reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez to the top spot by almost two tenths of a second.

Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer came from Q1 to complete the front row, just pipping VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio to third.

As the 15-minute Q2 session began, Alex Marquez laid the early marker with a 1m30.733s, and he was on course to improve his time until he went down at Turn 8 while trail braking on his Gresini Ducati.

Minutes later, di Giannantonio snatched the top spot with a 1m30.504s aboard the VR46 Ducati, before Bezzecchi became the first rider in history to break the 90s barrier at Misano.

This gave the Aprilia rider an advantage of 0.467s over di Giannantonio after the first runs, with Marc Marquez a further half a tenth behind in third. Bezzecchi’s Ducati rivals delivered significant improvements on their second runs, but the Italian remained out of reach, claiming his fourth pole of 2026 by 0.198s.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images)

The closest anyone came to Bezzecchi was Ducati star Marquez, who improved to 1m30.180s on his final run to qualify second, just ahead of Aldeguer’s Gresini bike.

Di Giannantonio could only find half a tenth on his final lap and ended up fourth, while championship leader Jorge Martin (Aprilia) qualified a solid fifth after struggling in practice.

Luca Marini impressed aboard the factory Honda to edge out Pedro Acosta to sixth, while Franco Morbidelli was eighth-fastest for VR46.

Gresini’s Alex Marquez crashed twice in qualifying, his second fall at Turn 4 in the closing stages leaving him a distant ninth on the grid.

Further back, Trackhouse Raul Fernandez struggled to match the pace of his factory Aprilia counterparts after coming through Q1 and ended up 10th.

The top 12 was completed by Johann Zarco (LCR) and Pol Espargaro (Tech3), although the former remains under investigation for allegedly impeding Bezzecchi in qualifying.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo held a provisional Q2 spot for much of the opening qualifying, but was bumped out by Aldeguer in the closing stages, ending up 13th on the grid.

Francesco Bagnaia qualified a disappointing 14th for his home race, with the two-time MotoGP champion hitting his factory Ducati in frustration after making a mistake on his flying lap.

Diogo Moreira (LCR) and Joan Mir (Honda) finished 15th and 17th respectively, separated by the Tech3 KTM of Enea Bastianini.

They were followed by Jack Miller (Pramac) and Brad Binder (KTM), while Alex Rins (Yamaha) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac) once again propped up the 21-bike grid.