Martin smashes lap record to beat Bagnaia to crucial pole

Jorge Martin smashed the Spielberg lap record to take pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix, beating favourite Francesco Bagnaia.

Championship leader Martin suffered a cut on his left thumb after a freak accident in the shower on Saturday night, but still managed to put in a stunning 1m27.748s in the 15-minute pole position shootout, holding off last year’s two-time Red Bull Ring winner Bagnaia for the top spot.

Martin’s closest rival, Bagnaia, was right up there in qualifying, setting a time of 1m28.605s on his first lap, before bettering his own time from Friday with a superb 1m28.142s on the GP24.

This gave him a tenth of a second lead over the championship leader and Martin after the opening runs, with Marc Marquez on the year-old Ducati almost a quarter of a second behind him in third place.

However, the tide turned when the field returned to the track for their second run in the final six minutes of the session, with Bagnaia losing a lap after running wide at Turn 1.

Martin had no trouble at all and became the first rider ever to break the 1.28s barrier on a MotoGP bike at the circuit. Bagnaia was unable to match him on his only flying lap in his second run.

That put the Spaniard on pole position by 0.141 seconds, while six-time champion Marquez maintained the pace he set in practice on Friday to take a solid third place on the Gresini Ducati.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marquez left Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro off the front row with his late time of 1m28.292, while his team-mate Maverick Vinales qualified sixth, completing a strong performance from the Noale factory.

The two Aprilia riders in fifth place were compensated by Jack Miller on the fastest KTM. The Australian ended up on the second row of the grid with a time of 1m28.546s after making a good start in Q1.

British Grand Prix winner Enea Bastianini rode a relatively quiet session to take seventh place on the factory Ducati, narrowly beating the similarly equipped GP24 machine of Pramac rider Franco Morbidelli.

Marco Bezzecchi qualified ninth on the VR46, while KTM wildcard rider Pol Espargaro crashed on a lap that looked good enough for a top five finish, dropping him to tenth on the grid.

Alex Marquez was 11th for Gresini, while 2021 winner Brad Binder, on his factory KTM, struggled to finish 12th, over a second slower than polesitter Martin.

Trackhouse rider Miguel Oliveira set an identical time to Pol Espargaro in Q1, but was taken out of the session after his second-fastest lap was slower than the Spaniard’s, dropping him to 13th on the grid.

Tech3 GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta failed to reach Q2 for the first time in his short MotoGP career and will now start 14th on the grid, as the top four riders were separated by less than a tenth of a second in the first part of qualifying.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo qualified 15th, ahead of the second RC16 with GasGas of Augusto Fernandez, while Honda’s improved engine was only good enough to put Johann Zarco 17th on the grid with the fastest RC213V.

MotoGP Austrian GP: Qualifying Results