Martin stuns fellow Aprilias for British GP pole

Martin stuns fellow Aprilias for British GP pole

Jorge Martin secured pole position for MotoGP’s British Grand Prix with a new Silverstone lap record, locking out an all-Aprilia front row.

The factory rider set a 1m56.160s right at the end of Saturday’s qualifying session, 0.12s faster than the previous lap record set by his team-mate Marco Bezzecchi on Friday.

Trackhouse riders Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura complete the front row, with the former having also gone quicker than the previous lap record.

It marks championship leader Martin’s second pole in the last three races, and his 22nd overall in MotoGP.

Fabio Di Giannantonio was the quickest Ducati in fourth, ahead of Bezzecchi. The Marquez brothers were sixth and seventh, with Marc ahead of Alex, both unable to improve on their second run.

An early upset came for Pecco Bagnaia, who failed to make it out of Q1 on his factory Ducati, and will line up 16th for this weekend’s races in his worst qualifying result of the season so far.

It was instead VR46’s Franco Morbidelli and Iker Lecuona, sitting in for Fermin Aldeguer at Gresini, who made it through to Q2.

Alex Marquez set the pace early on, with a 1m56.868s, before Fernandez shaved 0.25s off that time.

Though the younger Marquez brother improved to a 1m56.539s, it was Marc who led next, just 0.012s faster, after narrowly avoiding a crash earlier at Farm with a big wobble.

Fernandez’s quickest time came late in the session, a 1m56.181s, to set a new record, before Martin bettered it by 0.02s.

A large piece of seat aero fell from Bezzecchi’s Aprilia in the closing laps, but it was avoided by other bikes. Marc Marquez almost looked set to put in another quick lap at the end, but backed off in the final sector.

Morbidelli will line up eighth, with Pedro Acosta ninth for KTM. Lecuona, Jack Miller and Joan Mir complete the top 12.

Qualifying results

1 Jorge Martin (Aprilia) 1m56.160s
2 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.021s
3 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.189s
4 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +0.255s
5 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +0.296s
6 Marc Marquez (Ducati) +0.367s
7 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +0.379s
8 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +0.729s
9 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +0.772s
10 Iker Lecuona (Gresini Ducati) +1.162s
11 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +1.334s
12 Joan Mir (Honda) +1.883s

13 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +0.050s to Q2
14 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +0.213s
15 Luca Marini (Honda) +0.494s
16 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +0.508s
17 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +0.557s
18 Brad Binder (KTM) +0.698s
19 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +0.737s
20 Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) +0.757s
21 Pol Espargaro (Tech3 KTM) +1.031s
22 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha) +1.207s
23 Augusto Fernandez (Yamaha) +1.459s