Marco Bezzecchi wins a close qualifying session in Valencia – Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio on the front row – Pedro Acosta fifth
In a close qualifying session at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) secured the last pole position of the 2025 MotoGP season. Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati) took second and third place. The top 5 were within a tenth of a second of each other.
Once again, it was a setback for Francesco Bagnaia. The Ducati rider has been world champion twice in Valencia. This time, he had to compete in Q1. At the start of the first qualifying session, wildcard starter Augusto Fernandez crashed in turn 8 with the new V4 Yamaha.
After the first attempts, Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia) led the standings with a time of 1:29.554 minutes. Johann Zarco (LCR-Honda) was second at this point and Bagnaia only third. However, he was only a tenth of a second behind the leader.
In the second attempt, Bagnaia initially improved to second place, but three minutes before the end of Q1, he rolled out due to a technical problem and came to a stop. That was the end of qualifying for the Ducati factory rider.
Raul Fernandez ultimately set the fastest time in Q1 with 1:29.036 minutes. Zarco was second, four tenths of a second slower than the Aprilia. Bagnaia took sixth place and will start 16th. Returnee Jorge Martin (Aprilia) qualified 17th (to the Q1 result).
After the first attempts in Q2, Alex Marquez led the timesheets with a time of 1:28.967 minutes ahead of Franco Morbidelli (VR46-Ducati) and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha). Acosta followed in fourth and Bezzecchi was only ninth after running wide at Turn 2.
Very close decision
The second attempts brought the decision. Bezzecchi took the lead with a new lap record of 1:28.809 minutes. Acosta improved to second place, just 0.096 seconds behind the Aprilia factory rider.
Alex Marquez, Di Giannantonio, and Raul Fernandez then moved between Bezzecchi and Acosta. This meant that the top five were within less than a tenth of a second of each other!
That sealed the deal. Bezzecchi secured his fifth pole position of the season with the new lap record. “It was a really good session. I had a lot of fun, especially in the second time attack,” said the Italian happily.
“In the first one, I made a mistake early on and was a bit too nervous. When I went back out on the track, I tried to calm down a bit and just concentrate on riding cleanly. The bike worked perfectly.”
I’m super happy. This track is really tight, with extremely small gaps between the riders. So it’s going to be really tough, but also really fun. Hopefully, I’ll get a good start and be able to fight with the best.“
Alex Marquez was second, just 0.026 seconds slower. ”It’s not like in Portimao,“ said the vice world champion. ”We see opportunities here, but we’re still missing something, especially in terms of grip and traction. We’re losing quite a bit there.”
Di Giannantonio was also only 0.044 seconds off the pace. “I said yesterday that the main goal was a good qualifying result,” said the VR46 rider. “In the end, I put in a fantastic lap, because a 1:28.8 is a great time. I’m super happy.”
Raul Fernandez was fourth, 0.044 seconds behind, and Acosta took fifth place, although he was also only a minimal 0.096 seconds off the pace. Quartararo completed the second row in sixth place (see Q2 results).
Places seven to nine on row three were secured by Morbidelli, Jack Miller (Pramac-Yamaha), and Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini-Ducati). Joan Mir (Honda), Zarco, and Ai Ogura (Trackhouse-Aprilia) will attack from row four.
Marc Marquez also arrived at the track on Saturday morning to watch qualifying. He won this year’s BMW M Award and picked up a new BMW M2 CS after qualifying.
Superbike World Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu was also in the paddock and chatted with Quartararo, among others.
He will be riding the V4 Yamaha on Tuesday during the official test day.
The final sprint of the year over 13 laps will start at 3:00 p.m. (to the starting grid).