Francesco Bagnaia bounced back from a tough run of results to claim pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, while his MotoGP teammate Marc Marquez qualified on the front row.
Bagnaia set a new lap record at the rebranded Motegi Mobility Resort with a time of 1m42.911s to take the top spot by just under a tenth of a second from Honda’s Joan Mir, while Marquez took third place on a day when his nearest rival and brother Alex Marquez could only secure eighth place on the grid.
Marc Marquez laid the initial benchmark as Q2 began, setting a time of 1m43.413s on the factory Ducati.
But as the Spaniard backed out of his next lap and returned to the pits, he was usurped by a resurgent Bagnaia, who snatched the top spot by seven hundredths of a second.
Fabio Quartararo propelled his Yamaha to third place just minutes later, demoting Friday practice pacesetter Marco Bezzecchi to fourth, while Alex Marquez trailed in eighth place after the first run after coming through from Q1.
Lap times tumbled as riders returned on track in the second half of the session on fresh tyres, with Franky Morbidelli, Marc Marquez and even Mir taking turns at the top of the timesheets.
But Bagnaia moved the goalposts with just 20 seconds left on the clock, setting the first sub-1m43s lap time at Motegi to wrest control of qualifying again.
Although several other riders had time to complete their final flying laps, none could come anywhere close to the Italian, who secured his first pole position since the Czech GP in July.
Mir missed out on a maiden MotoGP pole by 0.092s, but second-place marked his best qualifying result with Honda – and it fittingly arrived on the Japanese marque’s home turf.
Championship leader Marquez was 0.132s off the pace in third place, but has a strong chance of wrapping up his ninth world championship – and seventh in MotoGP – on Sunday after his brother Alex could only manage eighth-fastest time with Gresini.
Meanwhile, KTM’s Pedro Acosta put in a solid effort to qualify fourth on the grid, despite a suspected ride-height device issue confining him to a single run in qualifying.
Joining him on the second row of the grid will be Quartararo and the top VR46 Ducati of Franco Morbidelli, who took sixth after coming through from Q1.
Seventh place went to Luca Marini on the factory Honda ahead of Alex Marquez, as Aprilia endured a tough qualifying with Marco Bezzecchi the best of the RS-GP runners in ninth.
Rounding out the top 10 was Raul Fernandez on the Trackhouse Aprilia, while Johann Zarco and Fabio di Giannantonio finished 11th and 12th for LCR and VR46 respectively.
Ai Ogura, Trackhouse Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Trackhouse Racing’s Ai Ogura will start the race from 13th on the grid after late yellow flags – triggered by crashes for Alex Rins and Brad Binder at separate corners – prevented him from progressing into Q2.
Pramac rider Jack Miller was 14th quickest, with Gresini rookie Fermin Aldeguer just four thousandths of a second adrift in 15th after going down at Turn 15 just minutes after setting his fastest lap.
Miller’s teammate Miguel Oliveira followed Alex Marquez out of the pits but could only manage 16th, while reigning champion Jorge Martin also had a tough day on the factory Aprilia, ending up 17th.
Three KTMs were knocked out in Q1, with factory rider Binder languishing in 18th after his crash and Tech3 duo Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales doing no better than 21st and 23rd respectively.
