{"id":123037,"date":"2025-09-06T11:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T11:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/123037\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T11:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T11:27:12","slug":"alex-marquez-takes-pole-with-new-track-record-pecco-bagnaia-21st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/123037\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Marquez takes pole with new track record, Pecco Bagnaia 21st"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Marquez<\/a> smashed the Barcelona MotoGP track record to claim pole position for the Catalan Grand Prix, as factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia<\/a> struggled to 21st position.<\/p>\n

The final part of qualifying was a two-horse race between the younger Marquez and Yamaha star Fabio Quartararo<\/a>, who had come through from Q1 to challenge for pole position.<\/p>\n

The pair traded the fastest times during the first runs, with the Gresini rider putting himself on provisional pole with a 1m37.914s.<\/p>\n

As the second run began, KTM’s Pedro Acosta<\/a> briefly moved to the top with a new track record of 1m37.840s, but his time was soon deleted for track limits, putting Marquez back at the front.<\/p>\n

Marquez moved the goalposts further with a 1m37.536s on his penultimate tour, putting four tenths between himself and his nearest rival on the timesheets.<\/p>\n

Quartararo tried to respond to the Spaniard\u2019s heroic effort but had no answer to Marquez’s pace, as the 29-year-old secured pole by over a quarter of a second.<\/p>\n

It marked his second career pole in MotoGP, having previously topped the 2023 Argentine GP qualifying in his first season with Gresini.<\/p>\n

His brother and championship runaway leader Marc Marquez<\/a> finished 0.409s off top in third, after his final flying lap was spoiled with a major moment at Turn 5.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, VR46\u2019s Franco Morbidelli<\/a> was classified fourth on last year\u2019s Ducati, two spots ahead of his team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Splitting the two VR46 riders was Acosta, who had to settle for fifth after failing to repeat his deleted 1m37s lap in the latter part of qualifying.<\/p>\n

\"Francesco <\/p>\n

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team<\/p>\n

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography \/ LAT Images \/ via Getty Images<\/p>\n

LCR rider Johann Zarco<\/a> was Honda\u2019s top qualifier in seventh, while Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura<\/a> led Aprilia\u2019s charge in eighth as the Noale marque\u2019s factory rider Marco Bezzecchi<\/a> ended up 12th. Tech3 KTM\u2019s Enea Bastianini<\/a> and factory Honda rider Luca Marini<\/a> were classified ninth and 10th respectively.<\/p>\n

Having set the pace on Friday, KTM ace Brad Binder<\/a> could only manage the 11th-fastest time of the day after having to switch to his second RC16.<\/p>\n

Gresini rookie Fermin Aldeguer<\/a> missed out on Q2 by just 0.004s and will start 13th on the grid ahead of Pramac\u2019s Jack Miller<\/a> and Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez.<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s team-mate Miguel Oliveira<\/a> will take the start from 16th on the grid, with factory Honda rider Joan Mir<\/a> and Aprilia star Jorge Martin<\/a> joining him on the sixth row.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, double MotoGP champion Bagnaia endured his worst qualifying result since he started last at the 2022 Portuguese Grand Prix, ending up 21st with a time of 1m38.530s.<\/p>\n

The only riders he outqualified were Tech3 returnee Maverick Vinales, Aprilia wildcard Lorenzo Savadori<\/a> and LCR rookie Somkiat Chantra<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Catalan GP qualifying – Q2 results:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q1 results:<\/p>\n

Photos from Catalan GP – Practice & Qualifying<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Jorge<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Johann<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Red<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Aleix<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Jorge<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Fans\"\/<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Johann<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Maverick<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Marco<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Joan<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Miguel<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Enea<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Joan<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Johann<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Somkiat<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Brad<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Maverick<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Jorge<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Maverick<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\n Catalan GP – Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a><\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Marquez smashed the Barcelona MotoGP track record to claim pole position for the Catalan Grand Prix, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[8454,64,63,79009,79010,5745,86568,806,805,803,804,86569,85],"class_list":["post-123037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-alex-marquez","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-catalan-gp","tag-circuit-de-barcelona-catalunya","tag-motogp","tag-motogp-catalan-gp-alex-marquez-takes-pole-with-new-track-record","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-pecco-bagnaia-21st","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}