Aprilia Sweeps the Front Row at Silverstone – Jorge Martin Takes Pole Position Ahead of the Trackhouse Duo – Marc Marquez Qualifies Sixth
Aprilia’s dominance continued in qualifying at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone. Jorge Martin secured pole position ahead of the Trackhouse duo of Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura. Marc Marquez (Ducati) will start from the second row.
After his crash in Friday practice, Francesco Bagnaia had to compete in Q1 for the fifth time this season. But after his first attempts, the Ducati factory rider was only eighth.
Franco Morbidelli (VR46-Ducati) initially led the standings ahead of rookie Diogo Moreira (LCR-Honda). On his second attempt, Morbidelli improved his time to 1:57.173 minutes.
Bagnaia only managed to move up to sixth place on his second attempt and was seven-tenths of a second behind Morbidelli. Then he made a mistake in Turn 1, and his Q1 run was over. Bagnaia ended up in 16th place on the grid.
Alongside Morbidelli, Iker Lecuona (Gresini-Ducati) also advanced to Q2. He set this lap time on his second attempt behind Morbidelli (Q1 result). Lecuona is standing in for Fermin Aldeguer at Silverstone, who is still recovering from his spinal injury sustained at Assen.
In Q2, the Marquez brothers posted their first 1:56-lap times of the weekend on their first attempt. Marc Marquez took the lead with a time of 1:56.527, twelve thousandths of a second ahead of Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati).
After the first runs, Martin was the top Aprilia rider in third place. In the second run, Marco Bezzecchi set a time of 1:56.456 minutes to take the lead. That was about two-tenths of a second slower than his best time from Friday.
Afterward, the two Trackhouse riders set out to chase fast lap times. Raúl Fernández set a new lap record of 1:56.181 minutes, and Ai Ogura slotted into second place, 0.168 seconds behind.
However, the outcome wasn’t decided yet. Martin clocked a lap in 1:56.160 minutes and, with this new lap record, secured his 22nd pole position in MotoGP. Aprilia occupied the entire front row of the grid.
MARTINATOR TAKES IT AT THE LAST SECOND
UNBELIEVABLE BritishGP pic.twitter.com/vYZkLlIzAj
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“I gave it everything I had on the track,” says Martin about his record lap. “To be honest, I didn’t expect to set such a fast lap time. But yesterday we confirmed that the feel has improved.”
“Today we took another small step forward. I really felt that I hadn’t raced here last year. That’s why I tried to get a feel for the pace we’re running here.”
Martin was ultimately 0.021 seconds faster than Raul Fernandez, who is still waiting for his first pole position. Nevertheless, he says: “I’m happy. But we’re still missing that pole position because of small details.”
“Today, we were really close—almost nothing was missing. But I still think we’re doing a good job. Now we have to carefully consider which tire is the right one for the sprint race, because we’re not 100 percent sure yet.”
Ogura took third place on the grid, 0.189 seconds behind. “It was a difficult session for me,” said the Japanese driver. “The lap time didn’t really turn out the way I expected. Let’s see what happens in the sprint.”
BIG moment for @marcmarquez93< /a> already BritishGP pic.twitter.com/YkftMmd97W
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The top Ducati rider was Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati) in fourth place. He was 0.255 seconds behind. Bezzecchi lost an aerodynamic part at the rear in the final stages and was unable to improve his time. He finished fifth.
Marc Marquez qualified sixth, 0.367 seconds behind. His younger brother Alex followed in seventh place. Morbidelli secured the eighth starting position.
KTM’s top rider, Pedro Acosta, was seven-tenths of a second off the pace. The Spaniard took ninth place (Q2 result). The starting positions on the fourth row went to Lecuona, Jack Miller (Pramac-Yamaha), and Joan Mir (Honda).
