Francesco Bagnaia got here by means of Q1 to attain a shock pole place for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday, as Aprilia endured a troublesome day at Sepang.
Choosing a single run halfway by means of the session to protect a set of soppy tyres, the manufacturing unit Ducati rider made probably the most of a transparent observe to publish a 1m57.001s lap.
Though a number of riders posted quickest particular person sectors, together with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, Bagnaia held on to clinch his third pole of the season by 0.016s.
The Italian’s closest challenger was Gresini’s Alex Marquez in second, whereas Franco Morbidelli accomplished an all-Ducati entrance -row in third for VR46.
Pedro Acosta initially led the best way within the 15-minute shootout, climbing to the highest spot on the timesheets with a 1m57.363s.
Quartararo snatched the highest spot quickly after with a 1m57.195s, earlier than Bagnaia moved the goalposts in his single run in the course of the session.
The Frenchman appeared set to safe a last-gap pole in qualifying, having been considerably faster than Bagnaia by means of the opening three sectors. However a poor closing sector left him fourth on the grid, 0.194s off pole place.
Acosta couldn’t enhance his early benchmark after crashing at Flip 1 and remounting on his bike, however he was nonetheless the highest KTM in fifth place.
Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer had an eventual qualifying as he set the quickest time in Q1, solely to crash twice afterward – first at Flip 4 after which within the paddock as he tried to convey the bike again into the storage.
Switching to his secondary machine, he ended up sixth with a time that was slower than his Q1 flyer.
Honda’s cost was led by Joan Mir in seventh place, with LCR’s Johann Zarco ending simply two spots behind in ninth.
Fabio di Giannantonio separated the 2 Hondas in eighth on the VR46 Ducati, whereas Alex Rins rounded out the highest 10 for Yamaha.
Jack Miller was categorised eleventh on the Pramac Yamaha, whereas KTM take a look at rider Pol Espargaro was slowest of the Q2 runners in twelfth.
FP2 pacesetter Luca Marini (Honda) narrowly missed out on advancing to Q2 after encountering yellow flags in Sector 1 when Aldeguer crashed at Flip 4.
Aprilia did not get a single bike into the second a part of qualifying, only a week after it dominated the Indonesian Grand Prix.
The most effective rider from the Noale marque was Marco Bezzecchi in 14th place, with Trackhouse duo Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura ending fifteenth and seventeenth respectively. They have been separated by the Pramac Yamaha of Miguel Oliveira.
Augusto Fernandez propped up the timesheets in twenty third on Yamaha’s V4 prototype, ending qualifying 2.3 seconds off the tempo.
Q2 outcomes:
Q1 outcomes:
We wish your opinion!
What would you wish to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
– The Motorsport.com Group
