Francesco Bagnaia came through Q1 to score a surprise pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday, as Aprilia endured a difficult day at Sepang.
Opting for a single run midway through the session to preserve a set of soft tyres, the factory Ducati rider made the most of a clear track to post a 1m57.001s lap.
Although several riders posted fastest individual sectors, including Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, Bagnaia held on to clinch his third pole of the season by 0.016s.
The Italian’s closest challenger was Gresini’s Alex Marquez in second, while Franco Morbidelli completed an all-Ducati front row in third for VR46.
Pedro Acosta initially led the way in the 15-minute shootout, climbing to the top spot on the timesheets with a 1m57.363s.
Quartararo snatched the top spot soon after with a 1m57.195s, before Bagnaia moved the goalposts in his single run in the middle of the session.
The Frenchman appeared set to secure a last-gap pole in qualifying, having been significantly quicker than Bagnaia through the opening three sectors. But a poor final sector left him fourth on the grid, 0.194s off pole position.
Acosta couldn’t improve his early benchmark after crashing at Turn 1 and remounting on his bike, but he was still the top KTM in fifth place.
Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer had an eventual qualifying as he set the fastest time in Q1, only to crash twice later on – first at Turn 4 and then in the paddock as he tried to bring the bike back into the garage.
Switching to his secondary machine, he ended up sixth with a time that was slower than his Q1 flyer.
Honda’s charge was led by Joan Mir in seventh position, with LCR’s Johann Zarco finishing just two spots behind in ninth.
Fabio di Giannantonio separated the two Hondas in eighth on the VR46 Ducati, while Alex Rins rounded out the top 10 for Yamaha.
Jack Miller was classified 11th on the Pramac Yamaha, while KTM test rider Pol Espargaro was slowest of the Q2 runners in 12th.
FP2 pacesetter Luca Marini (Honda) narrowly missed out on advancing to Q2 after encountering yellow flags in Sector 1 when Aldeguer crashed at Turn 4.
Aprilia failed to get a single bike into the second part of qualifying, just a week after it dominated the Indonesian Grand Prix.
The best rider from the Noale marque was Marco Bezzecchi in 14th place, with Trackhouse duo Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura finishing 15th and 17th respectively. They were separated by the Pramac Yamaha of Miguel Oliveira.
Augusto Fernandez propped up the timesheets in 23rd on Yamaha’s V4 prototype, ending qualifying 2.3 seconds off the pace.
Q2 results:
Q1 results:
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– The Autosport.com Team
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