MADRID, 13 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Italian rider Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) took pole position this Saturday for the French Grand Prix races, the fifth round of the Motorcycle World Championship, ousting Spanish Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) at the last moment, who was returning after injury , from the privileged position.
With his thirteenth pole position in the premier class, his second of the year and his twentieth in the World Championship, ‘Pecco’ was guaranteed to command a front row of the grid in which he will be accompanied by the man from Cervera and the Italian Luca Marini (Ducati), who had to go through Q1.
Meanwhile, Jorge Martín (Ducati) and Maverick Viñales (Aprilia), fifth and sixth respectively, will make up the second row together with Australian Jack Miller (KTM). Álex Márquez (Ducati) will start eighth, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) eleventh and Augusto Fernández (KTM), twelfth.
After a Q1 in which Marini and Augusto Fernández made it to the final round to fight for pole position, Viñales soon took the lead in the Q2 timetable, with Marc Márquez soon moving up to second place.
With just over two minutes to go, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) crashed in turn 1 and was left out of the fight, with Martín and Márquez fighting for the prize. However, with time up, Bagnaia appeared to beat the Catalan’s time by 58 thousandths and set a 1:30.450 that would give him pole position.
Among those who failed to advance to Q2, Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) will start sixteenth and Álex Rins (Honda) will do eighteenth. The Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), who will start thirteenth, also failed to qualify for the fight for pole position.