2025 Czech MotoGP: Pecco Bagnaia takes unlikely pole after Marc Marquez crash
Pecco Bagnaia gets first pole of 2025
Pecco Bagnaia came through Q1 to grab an unlikely pole for the 2025 MotoGP Czech Grand Prix after Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez crashed out on his final lap.
The double world champion fell into Q1 after Ducati got the strategy wrong for the end of the wet Practice on Friday and he was left in 13th.
Topping Q1, Pecco Bagnaia didn’t look entirely comfortable on his GP25 coming into the pole shootout session and was last after the opening runs.
Heading out in the second half of Q2 on his own, Bagnaia produced a new lap record of 1m52.303s to take over provisional pole with just under five minutes of the session remaining.
Bagnaia aborted his second lap of this run when he came across traffic at Turn 3, before fighting off Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez to tuck in behind championship leader Marc Marquez.
The next lap for this group was scuppered due to a crash for Marco Bezzecchi at Turn 1, however, after the Aprilia rider outbraked himself and ran into the air fencing.
This brought out the yellow flags and forced a final lap showdown for pole.
Marc Marquez lit up the timing screens across his final lap and had pulled away from the chasing pack behind.
But he crashed going into the penultimate corner in a fast off, resigning him to second on the grid.
Marquez went down as marshals were in the gravel reacting to LCR Honda Johann Zarco crashing ahead of him.
But because the crashes happened in such quick succession, Marquez should escape punishment for falling in a yellow flag zone.
Marquez and Zarco’s tumble effectively ended the session, with Bagnaia’s 1m52.303s standing intact to secure him his first pole of the season.
He leads a factory Ducati 1-2, while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo completed the front row.
Bezzecchi held onto fourth despite his crash, while Honda’s Joan Mir was a season-best fifth ahead of a another season-best performer in Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez - who followed Bagnaia through Q1.
Pedro Acosta was the lead KTM in seventh from Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Zarco, while a late crash for Pramac’s Jack Miller left him in 10th ahead of Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini.
Returning world champion Jorge Martin was 12th on his factory Aprilia having had his final flying lap cancelled for exceeding track limits.
VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio was the shock exit from Q1, having missed the Q2 cut by 0.097s in the first part of qualifying.
He headed Tech3 KTM stand-in Pol Espargaro and Yamaha’s Alex Rins, with Luca Marini starting this weekend’s racing 16th.
Pramac Yamaha’s Miguel Oliveira headed Gresini rookie Fermin Alddeguer, with the most recent Czech Grand Prix winner Brad Binder a disappointing 19th for KTM ahead of LCR Honda stand-in Takaaki Nakagami, Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura and Yamaha wildcard Augusto Fernandez.
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