The Spanish Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP24) has achieved his first pole position of the season and the fourteenth of his MotoGP career by being the fastest in the official classification for the MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix at the circuit of Lusail, in addition to setting a new absolute record.
Martín lapped in 1:50.789 to establish a new absolute record for the category, beating the record established shortly before by the Spanish Alex Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP23) in 1:51.108, in a session in which the first six riders finished in less two tenths of a second difference and all of them, the first twelve, below last year's record of the Italian Luca Marini, 1:51.762.
After Jorge Martín, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP) and Enea 'La Bestia' Bastianini (Ducati Desmosedici GP24) finished, who will start from the first starting line, with the South African Brad Binder 8KTM RC 16), the Italian Francesco 'Pecco' Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP24) and the Spanish Marc Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP23) in second. Seven Spanish drivers, three Italians, a South African and an Australian competed in this second Qatar classification.
In the first classification, the main candidates to advance to the next classification emerged very quickly, with the Spanish Raúl Fernández (Aprilia RS-GP) and the Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati Desmosedici GP23), with the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira as 'guest of stone' waiting for the slightest mistake from his rivals.
Others, like the Honda drivers, were not so lucky and the best of them all was the Spanish Joan Mir, but in fifth position, practically six tenths of a second behind Raúl Fernández, and with luck on his back, because in the The last attempt at a fast lap went down in turn sixteen, the one at the entrance to the finish line.
Alex Rins did not even have the opportunity to try, because when he went out onto the track along the workshop street his motorcycle gave him technical problems that forced him to turn around and return to his workshop, without the possibility of improving the tenth place in which he just.
In the end, from the first classification Raúl Fernández and the Australian Jack Miller (KTM RC 16) moved on to the second, in their case with just eleven thousandths of a second ahead of the Frenchman Johann Zarco and his Honda RC 213 V.
It didn't take long for 'Pecco' Bagnaia to take to the track to try to achieve a good classification on a track where the last tests carried out reached a time of 1:50.9, a record that he was going to try to achieve again, although it was not going to be a easy goal to achieve.
But the first to achieve that milestone was Jorge Martín, who in the second lap already established a new track record with 1:50.789, followed by the Italians Di Giannantonio and Bagnaia and with Marc Márquez fourth riding alone. Alex Márquez did not start too strong, as he went from being the fastest for qualifying to twelfth in this one, with a distant 1:52.139.
Aleix Espargaró was the closest to Martín in the final stretch, 1:50.872, even with a couple of minutes ahead in which no one could beat the Spanish records, while the South African Brad Binder (KTM RC 16) finished by soil. The debutant Pedro Acosta finished in eighth position, third starting line, ahead of Alex Márquez, and with Maverick Viñales, Jack Miller and Raúl Fernández in fourth.
