Francesco Bagnaia takes crucial pole position in the MotoGP qualifying of Barcelona

Ducatis Francesco Bagnaia took a crucial pole position Barcelona MotoGP to qualify ahead of the championship rival Jorge Martin.

Bagnaia’s time of 1:38.641 was enough to take an important pole position as he will start both races ahead of Martin, who could only finish fourth.

There was a chaotic start to the Q2 session as riders filtered onto the track in a peloton in an attempt to get towed, leading to Marc Marquez almost running into Bagnaia’s bike at the pit lane exit.

The Ducati rider was unfazed and set the early pace, immediately moving to the top of the timesheets after setting the benchmark time of 1:38.835.

Marquez followed the two-time reigning champion around the Barcelona circuit to take a tow, dropping him into second place, splitting the championship rivals as Martin moved to third.

The final flying laps arrived and Bagnaia was chased by Marquez and Morbidelli in their attempts to improve their lap times.

Bagnaia saw an improvement on his early lap, posting a 1:38.641 to firmly hold on to his provisional pole position, while Marquez and Morbidelli staked out strong claims for the front row behind him.

Aleix Espargaro gave Martin and Pedro Acosta a boost as they tried to improve their own times and challenge Bagnaia at the top.

Espargaro moved up to second, but his improvement pushed Martin from the front row to fourth.

Bagnaia took perhaps his most important pole position of the season and will have the lead over Martin in both races.

Espargaro finished second in his final MotoGP qualifying session in front of an adoring home crowd in Catalonia.

Marquez took a surprise third place after struggling all weekend, as he could prove to be a decisive character in the battle for the championship.

Martin starts directly behind Bagnaia on the second row in fourth, ahead of teammate Morbidelli in fifth and Acosta in sixth.

Maverick Vinales could only finish seventh and starts ahead of Enea Bastianini in eighth place and Marco Bezzecchi in ninth place.

Fabio Quartararo will lead the fourth row of the grid after qualifying 10th, while Alex Marquez recovered from an early crash to 11th, while Johann Zarco finished 12th.

Joan Mir narrowly missed out on a Q2 appearance and will top the fifth row in 13th, ahead of Miguel Oliveira in 14th and Alex Rins in 15th.

Luca Marini finished the session in 16th after a decent performance for Repsol Honda, with Raul Fernandez finishing qualifying in 17th.

A difficult session for KTM saw Brad Binder finish in 18th place, while teammate Jack Miller crashed at the end of Q1 and was unable to improve on 19th.

Takaaki Nakagami failed to set a competitive lap time and finished qualifying in 20th, ahead of Augusto Fernandez in 21st.

Michele Pirro finished the qualifying session in 22nd, while Stefan Bradl completed the standings in 23rd.