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.