Qualifying report
MotoGP Malaysian GP
MotoGP Malaysian GP: Bagnaia beats title rival Martin to pole
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia snatched pole for the Malaysian Grand Prix away from chief MotoGP title rival Jorge Martin, as the pair exchanged all-time lap records.
Lewis Duncan
Edited: Nov 11, 2023, 1:02 PM
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Bagnaia and Martin are split by just 13 points ahead of this afternoon’s sprint contest at the Sepang International Circuit, which set up a critical qualifying on Saturday morning.
Pramac’s Martin looked set to add a third-straight pole to his tally of four for the season when he posted a lap record 1m57.549s on his first stint in Q2.
But Bagnaia responded emphatically with a 1m57.491s to snatch his first pole since Barcelona by just 0.058 seconds.
A crash for Martin left him second ahead of Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, who came through Q1 to secure his first front row start since last year’s Malaysian GP.
Ducati controlled the 15-minute Q2 segment in qualifying, with Alex Marquez – who was fastest on Friday – setting the initial pace on his year-old Gresini Ducati with a 1m57.924s.
This was quickly beaten by Luca Marini on the VR46 2022-spec Ducati, with a 1m57.787s, before Martin lit up the timing screens on his latest-spec Pramac Desmosedici.
Martin’s 1m57.549s put him over two tenths under his previous lap record from his pole time in 2022.
Having progressed through Q1, Bastianini was the first rider to threaten Martin’s lap, the four-time grand prix winner – who is rumoured to be getting replaced by Martin at the factory squad next year – getting to within 0.041s of the pole time.
On the first flying lap of his second run in the closing stages of Q2, Bagnaia had to abort an effort due to Marini crashing in front of him at Turn 9.
His final flier started off well, and he was given a boost to his pole chances when Martin crashed at Turn 4 on his last lap.
Bagnaia was almost a tenth and a half up on Martin through sector three and held on to take his seventh pole of the season.
Martin and Bastianini completed the front row, with Alex Marquez heading row two from VR46 duo Marini and Marco Bezzecchi.
Brad Binder was seventh on the leading factory KTM ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales.
Jack Miller (KTM) will start 10th, with Fabio Di Giannantonio – who joined Bastianini in advancing from Q1 – 11th after crashing his Gresini Ducati at the last corner. Pramac’s Johann Zarco was 12th.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro’s Malaysia weekend failed to improve, after he crashed four times on Friday as he tested a front fork from Ohlins he didn’t feel comfortable on.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Fabio Di Giannantonio, Gresini Racing
He could do no more than 13th in qualifying at Sepang, missing a place in Q2 by 0.158s ahead of Tech3 GasGas rider Augusto Fernandez.
Fernandez was lucky not to be taken out by Marc Marquez when the Honda rider crashed trying to overtake the Tech3 rider on the inside of Turn 7 late on in Q1.
Eight-time world champion Marquez had been on course for a lap to challenge the top two spots when he lost the front of his RC213V over a vicious bump in Turn 7.
That concluded a scrappy session for Marquez, who was repeatedly caught up in some gamesmanship with Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli, as he cruised looking for the Italian’s tow.
His crash left him down in 20th, while Morbidelli was 15th ahead of the leading Honda of Joan Mir in 16th.
Pol Espargaro will start 17th on the second Tech3 GasGas from RNF Aprilia duo Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira.
Behind Marquez starts LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami, while Ducati wildcard and reigning World Superbike champion Alvaro Bautista will start his first MotoGP race since Valencia 2018 from 22nd.
Alex Rins’ LCR injury stand-in Iker Lecuona lines up last of the 23 riders.
MotoGP Malaysian GP - Q2 results:
Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info
Driver Info
Main Information Additional Data
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap 1 F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1
Ducati 7
1'57.491
169.841 2 J. Martin Pramac Racing 89
Ducati 6
+0.058
1'57.549
0.058 169.757 3 E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23
Ducati 4
+0.099
1'57.590
0.041 169.698 4 A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73
Ducati 7
+0.170
1'57.661
0.071 169.595 5 L. Marini Team VR46 10
Ducati 4
+0.296
1'57.787
0.126 169.414 6 M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72
Ducati 7
+0.314
1'57.805
0.018 169.388 7 B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33
KTM 7
+0.559
1'58.050
0.245 169.036 8 F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20
Yamaha 7
+0.589
1'58.080
0.030 168.993 9 M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12
Aprilia 7
+0.762
1'58.253
0.173 168.746 10 J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43
KTM 7
+0.977
1'58.468
0.215 168.440 11 F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing 49
Ducati 5
+1.720
1'59.211
0.743 167.390 12 J. Zarco Pramac Racing 5
Ducati 6
+4.357
2'01.848
2.637 163.767 View full results
MotoGP Malaysian GP - Q1 results:
Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info
Driver Info
Main Information Additional Data
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap 1 F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing 49
Ducati 6
1'57.823
169.362 328 2 E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23
Ducati 6
+0.088
1'57.911
0.088 169.236 332 3 A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41
Aprilia 6
+0.246
1'58.069
0.158 169.009 333 4 A. Fernandez Tech 3 37
KTM 6
+0.284
1'58.107
0.038 168.955 331 5 F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing 21
Yamaha 6
+0.498
1'58.321
0.214 168.649 331 6 J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36
Honda 7
+0.617
1'58.440
0.119 168.480 334 7 P. Espargaro Tech 3 44
KTM 6
+0.732
1'58.555
0.115 168.316 335 8 R. Fernández RNF Racing 25
Aprilia 7
+0.800
1'58.623
0.068 168.220 329 9 M. Oliveira RNF Racing 88
Aprilia 7
+0.815
1'58.638
0.015 168.199 332 10 M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team 93
Honda 5
+0.894
1'58.717
0.079 168.087 335 11 T. Nakagami Team LCR 30
Honda 7
+1.063
1'58.886
0.169 167.848 329 12 A. Bautista Ducati Team 19
Ducati 5
+1.595
1'59.418
0.532 167.100 333 13 I. Lecuona Team LCR 27
Honda 7
+1.835
1'59.658
0.240 166.765 329 View full results
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