‘Pecco’ Bagnaia took a sixth pole position of the year in Barcelona, continuing his dominance from Friday. for who has shown that he is one step ahead of the rest, as he already showed during the Friday session. The Italian had to wait until the last moment to fend off second placed Aleix Espargaró, whilst Marc Márquez completed the front row.
After a tight FP2 and with up to twenty riders in less than a second, and another close Q1, in Q2 Bagnaia led the way early, with Marc Márquez and Martín behind him. After the pit stop and the subsequent tyre change, Bagnaia again lowered his time to secure pole position, ahead of the two home riders. The second row of the grid is made up of Jorge Martín, Franco Morbidelli and Pedro Acosta.
The rest of the riders who took part in Q2 were Maverick Viñales, Enea Bastianini, Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Quartararo, Álex Márquez and Johann Zarco.
28 thousandths of a second separates Joan Mir from Q2
Good qualifying session for the Repsol Honda team at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. On the one hand. Joan Mir was just a breath away from qualifying for Q2, his best qualifying of the season (P13). Luca Marini, on the other hand, was a tenth slower than his teammate and will start from P16 on the grid. Earlier, in FP2, both worked on their pace for the sprint race and finished in P19 and P20 respectively.
Mir took just two laps to lower his best time from Friday. The Spaniard, who had crashed at the end of Practice while trying to lower his 1:40.125 time, was able to put in a great lap after a pit stop in Q1, and was just 28 thousandths away from the Q2 cut-off. The Repsol Honda rider’s best time was 1:39:432, faster than that which he had set at the Catalan Grand Prix a few months ago.
Marini also took advantage of his first outing in Q1 to get into the fight for the Top 2. The Italian had been faster than his teammate initially, but after a tyre change was unable to make the same improvements, with his best lap -and quickest time of the weekend- a 1:39.619. He will be 16th on the grid.
The sprint race will take place at 3pm (CEST).
2024 Solidarity GP Qualifying Practice Results
RIDER | TEAM | TIME |
1. ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia | DUCATI | 1:38.641 |
2. Aleix Espargaró | APRILIA | +0.055 |
3. Marc Márquez | DUCATI | +0.157 |
4. Jorge Martín | DUCATI | +0.208 |
5. Franco Morbidelli | DUCATI | +0.245 |
6. Pedro Acosta | GASGAS | +0.308 |
7. Maverick Viñales | APRILIA | +0.351 |
8. Enea Bastianini | DUCATI | +0.437 |
9. Marco Bezzecchi | DUCATI | +0.480 |
10. Fabio Quartararo | YAMAHA | +0.568 |
11. Álex Márquez | DUCATI | +0.611 |
12. Johann Zarco | HONDA | +0.853 |
13. Joan Mir | REPSOL HONDA | *+0.287 |
14. Miguel Oliveira | APRILIA | *+0.342 |
15. Àlex Rins | YAMAHA | *+0.414 |
16. Luca Marini | REPSOL HONDA | *+0.474 |
17. Raúl Fernández | APRILIA | *+0.500 |
18. Brad Binder | KTM | *+0.533 |
19. Jack Miller | KTM | *+0.604 |
20. Takaaki Nakagami | HONDA | *+0.648 |
21. Augusto Fernández | GASGAS | *+1.021 |
22. Michele Pirro | DUCATI | *+1.107 |
23. Stefan Bradl | HONDA | *+1.278 |