Jorge Martin beats Marc Marquez: He’s on pole in Austria. Pecco Bagnaia makes a comeback and remains hopeful

Jorge Martin secured pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix (and Saturday’s Sprint Race): In MotoGP Q2, the Aprilia rider set a best time of 1:27.917, edging out Marc Marquez on a Ducati by just 15 hundredths of a second. Rounding out the front row is Pedro Acosta on a KTM, who was 71 thousandths of a second behind in the decisive session.

Leading off the second row will be Marco Bezzecchi’s other Aprilia (+0.249), while returning rider Ai Ogura—also on an Aprilia but racing for the Trackhouse team—will start from fifth on the grid, having been 533 thousandths slower in qualifying. Sixth place went to Alex Márquez, whose best time was 556 thousandths slower than Martin’s.

After a nightmare Friday, Pecco Bagnaia is back on track: the Piedmont native first secured his spot in Q2 by finishing Q1 tied for first with Johann Zarco, then posted the seventh-fastest time (+0.610), which will at least allow him to avoid starting from the back of the grid and attempt a charge toward the top 5. Rounding out the third row will be Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati VR46, +0.695) and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha, +0.706).

The fourth row, meanwhile, will feature Zarco (LCR Honda, +0.715), Brad Binder (KTM, +0.812), and Fermin Aldeguer (Ducati Gresini, +0.945). The following riders did not advance past Q1 and will therefore start from 13th place and below: Raul Fernandez (Aprilia Trackhouse), Pol Espargaró (KTM Tech3), Luca Marini (Honda), Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda), Enea Bastianini (KTM Tech3), Takaaki Nakagami (Honda), Franco Morbidelli (Ducati VR46), Alex Rins (Yamaha), Jack Miller (Yamaha Pramac), and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha Pramac).