Marquez beats Zarco to pole at wet Jerez

Marc Marquez set himself up for a long overdue return to the MotoGP winner’s circle by grabbing pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix in slick conditions at Jerez on Saturday. 

He will line up alongside damp-weather specialist Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) and in-form VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio, with world championship leader Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) fourth as he looks for a sixth consecutive grand prix victory on Sunday.

Marquez has been troubled by injuries since his accident in Indonesia last year, missing several races, and has not won since the 2025 San Marino GP. His last pole position came as long ago as the Hungarian GP, two races earlier.

Proceedings opened with an intriguing Q1 session that began damp, then saw a brief shower five minutes in, making conditions challenging for the riders and teams. While the track didn’t get slower after the rain, nor did it appear to offer an advantage to those crossing the line late in the session. 

Zarco and KTM’s Pedro Acosta made the competition look pedestrian in the tricky conditions, putting almost a second between themselves and the rest of the field. Both registered their times well before the end and were not required to push in the dying stages.

There was no further rain in the break between Q1 and Q2, but the track still wasn’t ready for slicks as the battle for pole began, with times over 10 seconds off the dry pace registered on Friday. That didn’t change as the 15 minutes wound down, but the battle ran all the way to the end.

Zarco excelled in this rare chance to fight in the higher reaches of the MotoGP field, putting in an impressive 1m48.625s lap with four minutes remaining in the session. That vaulted him to the top of the timesheets – and only Marc Marquez would be able to respond to that time.

Marc’s penultimate lap, a 1m48.087s, earned him pole position aboard the factory Ducati, although Zarco did threaten with a last-ditch attempt. The Frenchman lowered his time to 1m48.227s, and may even have reclaimed pole were it not for an error at the last corner. 

The gap behind the first pair was considerable – in fact, Zarco’s second-quickest lap would also have been enough for second on the grid. Di Giannantonio, in third, was a vast 0.870s away from Zarco in second. 

Bezzecchi will share the second row with 2025 Spanish GP winner Alex Marquez, who did well to salvage fifth after a crash early in the session, and Acosta.

Jorge Martin was seventh-fastest on the factory Aprilia, but faces a three-spot grid penalty for Sunday. This promotes KTM’s Enea Bastianini, Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) to the third row. 

Martin will lead row four, ahead of Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura and Fermin Aldeguer, who crashed in both Free Practice 2 and Q1.

Toprak Razgatlioglu, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Diogo Moreira, Franco Morbidelli and Jack Miller will line up at the very back of the grid after failing to set times in Q1. All three fell at various stages of the session – with Morbidelli suffering a smoking engine into the bargain.

The crash was particularly costly for Miller, who often excels in the damp and might have seen the session as a rare chance to make it into Q2. His fall at Lorenzo corner came shortly after he witnessed his team-mate Toprak Razgatlioglu pull off a masterful save at the same corner late in Free Practice 2. 

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