Bagnaia takes the last pole to put pressure on Martín, who will start fourth

The first round for the MotoGP world title, the Sprint race this afternoon (3:00 p.m.), will have Pecco Bagnaia with a slight advantage over Jorge Martín. The Italian took the last pole of the season, the sixth of the year, to put pressure on the Madrid driver, who could only finish fourth. The championship leader was erratic, who had a couple of mistakes and was unable to take advantage of the wheel that his friend Aleix Espargaró offered him.

Paradoxically, the Aprilia rider ended up removing Martín from the front row when he scored the second half, and pushing Jorge to fourth. A small advantage for Bagnaia in the short race that can already say the title, 12 laps. Although it is to be expected that the Spaniard on the Pramac Ducati will be in the front positions at the first stop.

From start to finish

Bagnaia was devastating from the moment he left the garage, willing to be the fastest and put pressure on Martín

In the qualifying session, Bagnaia came out with the knife between his teeth from the moment he emerged from the garage, setting the best lap since his first attempt, while Martín aborted his first lap. In the next one, the Madrid native placed seventh.

In the second attempt, Pecco doubled the bet, setting the bar very high, at 1m38s835, and Martín could not go below 1m39s but came within 241 thousandths of the Italian.

A great time that had a trick, since Aleix Espargaró had offered to give his friend Jorge a slipstream. The man from Madrid was able to take the aspiration of the Aprilia and get into the provisional first line, behind Marc Márquez, second.

The tension grew in the last four minutes of the session. Bagnaia painted his stopwatch red again and lowered the best lap to 1m38s641, two tenths less, while Martín failed in his attempt and lost third place to his teammate Morbidelli, who improved his time by 88 thousandths.

Martín improved his time (1m38s849) on his last lap, but he couldn’t get into the top three since Aleix Espargaró ended up taking him out of the front row with the second best time. The man from Granollers offered him the wheel again for a last attempt at a better lap, but the two went long.

“Jorge is playing a lot, it is obvious that he has a little bit of pressure. Anything we can help you with is more than welcome. For once grandpa can give him a wheel, that’s fine too…”, Aleix Espargaró joked in Dazn.

So the pole It was for Bagnaia, the sixth of the year, with whom he will have a small advantage to try to escape. Espargaró and Marc Márquez accompany him in the front row, with Martín, Morbidelli and Acosta in the second.

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