Bagnaia's despair, Bezzecchi's roar: the two faces of Valencia qualifying

Out of Q2 again, this time due to a problem with the Desmosedici. When it rains, it pours for Pecco Bagnaia, who has to stop his charge with 3 minutes to go, forced to park it in the gravel and trudge back to the box. If Ducati has little to celebrate, Aprilia keeps smiling: Marco Bezzecchi is on fire, in the last GP he grabs pole position with a new absolute MotoGP lap record at Circuit Ricardo Tormo! See you at 15:00 for the Sprint—here’s how it went in the meantime.

After the signals seen in Free Practice 2, which he ended with the second-best time (pipped at the flag by rookie Ogura), Pecco Bagnaia is among the protagonists of this first session for the sixth time this year. Something that doesn’t please Ducati management, as Tardozzi pointed out at the end of Friday in Valencia... The session starts well for the Piedmont native, but watch out for Zarco and Raul Fernandez, who want Q2. There’s a crash for Augusto Fernandez on the books, it’s a three-way fight for the two available spots... But with three minutes to go Bagnaia stops, there’s a problem with his Ducati! And shortly after Binder improves, the Italian is out of Q2. It’s a flash from the South African on the KTM: in the end Raul Fernandez stays ahead, second place goes to Johann Zarco.

Acosta with two bikes: despite the FP2 crash, everything is already sorted for this decisive session. The final assault on pole is on, a battle between the “satellite Ducatis” and the Aprilias—one in particular. Marco Bezzecchi, who is really finding his stride on the RS-GP, doesn’t want to be denied even in this qualifying. Here comes the hammer blow from Aprilia’s revelation, who shatters the absolute record and secures first place—pole position in Valencia! An all-Italian front row with Alex Marquez on the Gresini Ducati and Fabio Di Giannantonio on the VR46 Ducati.