MADRID, 18 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Italian rider Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati) has claimed pole position for the MotoGP race of the German Grand Prix, the tenth round of the Motorcycle World Championship, and will lead a front row in which he will be accompanied by the World Championship leader, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), and fellow Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati), while Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) will start fourth.
A spectacular time of 1:19.931 earned the transalpine the third pole of the course, after the Spanish Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix, with 76 thousandths of an advantage over the rider from Nice, who will try to take advantage of his position to continue to increase his income over the Spanish Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia).
The man from Granollers, 22 points behind ‘El Diablo’ in the general classification, will start fourth looking to make up for his monumental mistake at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya; he was running second with a lap to go and stopped shooting thinking the race was over, and his reaction only earned him fifth.
‘Pecco’, who had smashed the circuit record in the third free practice (1:19.765), set the first great reference time of Q2 with a good 1:20.098, which allowed him to beat the pole time of the past grade.
He still dropped the mark with a few minutes to go, and again, on his final lap, he became the first to drop below 1:20 to take first place. Aleix reached the crucial moments on the front line, but Quartararo and Zarco managed to expel him.
In addition, Jorge Martín (Ducati) will start eighth, ahead of Maverick Viñales (Aprilia), and Joan Mir (Suzuki) will start twelfth. Among those who did not manage to get through Q1, Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda) will start from thirteenth place, Alex Márquez (Honda) will do so from sixteenth and Raúl Fernández (KTM), from twenty-second and penultimate.
For his part, Alex Rins (Suzuki) did not participate in the session and will miss the appointment in Sachsering – where the eighth champion Marc Márquez will not be either – due to the pain he suffers in his left wrist.