Marc Marquez has claimed his first pole position of the 2023 MotoGP season. The Honda rider set a new lap record on the Portimao circuit in Portugal, beating world champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) by six hundredths of a second in second place. Jorge Martin (Pramac-Ducati) completed the front row.
Airfences were installed at Turn 10 this morning after Pol Espargaro’s serious crash the day before. The drivers had vehemently demanded this because Espargaro crashed into the barriers.
First of all, the day didn’t start according to plan for the Ducati factory team. In the half-hour free practice, first Enea Bastianini and then Francesco Bagnaia fell. Both were unharmed. Bagnaia only had one bike available for qualifying.
The world champion didn’t make any mistakes in qualifying and set the best time when the Q2 checkered flag fell. But Marc Marquez had his tactics right. He drove his last attempt directly behind Bastianini. He had already announced the day before that he needed a slipstream.
New lap record for Marc Marquez
With 1:37.226 minutes, Marc Marquez set a new lap record and catapulted himself from twelfth place to the top. The previous record was from 2021 and was 1:38.725 minutes. That shows how fast MotoGP bikes have become.
“I can’t explain it because I don’t understand it myself,” commented Marc Marquez on his pole lap. “Yesterday we had a lot of problems. Today things went a little better, I was able to improve. In the third practice session I felt good and was quite consistent.”
“But in order to do a really fast lap with the Honda, we need the slipstream at the moment. That’s not the best or nicest way to do a lap time like that. But it’s one of my strengths and I have to use it. It’s up to date the only way.”
“I would also rather push from the front and have the rhythm on my own. But we will start from pole today and tomorrow. That is very important. Let’s see if we can keep the level. I think over the race distance it will be against them Ducati’s difficult.”
In the Ducati box, people wanted to celebrate pole. Bagnaia is relaxed about his narrow defeat: “I was happy with my first lap, the second was actually even better. But four drivers drove slowly on the ideal line, so I lost the lap.”
From the front row, the defending champion has optimal prerequisites for the two races: “I can still be satisfied with what we did and I think that we are very competitive – also for the sprint race.”
Local hero Miguel Oliveira (RNF-Aprilia) was the best Aprilia representative in fourth place. Jack Miller held the best time after the first attempt, but early on in his second attempt, the KTM rider crashed at Turn 3, dropping to fifth.
Bastianini completed the second row in sixth place. Positions seven through ninth on row three went to Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) and VR46 Ducati duo Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini.
Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) qualified eleventh behind Johann Zarco (Pramac-Ducati). Twelfth and last was Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), who crashed at Turn 13 on his first attempt.Q1: Marc Marquez sets the best timeIn the first session of qualifying, Marc Marquez made just one attempt and then decided to stay in the pits and save a soft rear tire for Q2. His benchmark was 1:37.675 minutes. He drove this lap behind teammate Joan Mir.
Alex Marquez gets stuck in third
His time was initially threatened by Alex Marquez, but the Gresini Ducati rider didn’t beat it and finished second. And on the final lap, Oliveira grabbed second place and moved into Q2 alongside Marc Marquez.
Alex Marquez finally got stuck in third place. Honda newcomer Mir only finished fourth. That means 14th on the grid for him. Brad Binder (KTM), who is struggling with neck pain, followed in fifth.
Franco Morbidelli could not show an upward trend. The second Yamaha rider was more than six tenths of a second off Marc Marquez’s Q1 time. The Italian thus qualified for 17th place on the grid.
The starting grid applies to both the Sprint and the Grand Prix. The new 12-lap sprint race will start on Saturday at 16:00 CET.