2024 Solidarity Barcelona MotoGP: Bagnaia took pole position in the title fight, Martin finished fourth

Francesco Bagnaia took the pole position that will determine the 2024 MotoGP championship at the Barcelona Solidarity Grand Prix, while championship leader Jorge Martin finished fourth.

At the final round of the season this weekend, Martin was 24 points ahead of Bagnaia in the standings and could wrap up the title in the sprint on Saturday afternoon.

He needs to edge Bagnaia by two points, but the task has become even more difficult after Bagnaia took pole position on the factory team Ducati, ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Gresini’s Marc Marquez.

Martin, who said on Friday that he did not trust the GP24 driven by Pramac, is in second place in fourth place, ahead of his teammate Franco Morbidelli.

At the start of the 15-minute second quarter session in Barcelona, Martin was around a tenth ahead of Bagnaia in the first sector before falling back on the first lap.

Reigning world champion Bagnaia set the first pace with 1:39.583 seconds, while Marquez beat him by 0.037 seconds.

Bagnaia clocked a 1:38.835 on his second fast lap, while Martin’s first effort put him on the provisional front row, moving into third place.

Bagnaia emerged from the pitlane for his final run, again alongside Marquez and Morbidelli.

Bagnaia managed to find more time in the closing stages of Q2 and took the final and most important pole position of the year with a time of 1:38.641.

Aprilia pilot Espargaro’s late move to bid farewell to MotoGP rose to second place, 0.055 seconds after the pole position, while Marquez maintained his third place in GP23 in the Gresini race.

On Martin’s penultimate fast lap he ran over the chicane at Turn 1, leaving him with just one more attempt.

He could not do more than fourth, being 0.037 seconds behind Morbidelli. Tech3 GASGAS rookie Pedro Acosta finished second in sixth place.

Maverick Vinales threatened Martin’s fourth place on his final lap, but the Aprilia rider missed out on seventh place ahead of Ducati’s Enea Bastianini.

VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi finished ninth, while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo finished the first quarter in 10th place along with Morbidelli.

Alex Marquez finished 11th after crashing his Gresini Ducati early, while LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco finished 12th.

Joan Mir narrowly missed making it two Hondas in the second quarter, with the works rider 0.028 seconds behind the top two in the first 15-minute session.

Miguel Oliveira will start from 14th in his last race for Trackhouse Aprilia, his first race since breaking his ankle in practice for the Indonesian GP.

He beat Yamaha’s Alex Rins and finished 16th ahead of Luca Marini, sister factory team Honda’s Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) and KTM duo Brad Binder and Jack Miller.

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