Bagnaia had no choice but to Le Mans and take a pole

The seventh pillar of the 2022 MotoGP campaign was appointed by Pecco Bagnaia, who started traveling on classic European circuits and began to achieve everyone’s expectations of him, that he was a star. He won from pole leading all laps in Jerez’s last race and so far at Le Mans he has earned his second consecutive pole, his eighth ever in the premier class. And all after destroying all possible records at Le Mans thanks to the ‘unusual’, for these payments to La Sarthe, spring temperatures.

Until 2020 Ducati had not won Le Mans, but in this new decade they were able to make the bike fit the French ‘stop & go’ layout, they won in 2020 with Petrucci and in 2021 with Jack Miller, although the last two. The pole positions fittingly became the new hero of French motorcycling, Fabio Quartararo who fought in his first home GP as world champion. He tried, he put all his guts into it, but Ducati had two long tenths more than him on the dry turn, so the Bagnaia-Miller double was separated by 69 thousandths. Another thing is at the speed of the race because in FP4 the Frenchman has given himself a big belly of regularity ahead of Rins, Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaró who for the fourth time in seven Grand Prix will start from front row, and had his second pole of the year discarded. And that he has Damocles’ sword to do it without a mistake because he only has one Aprilia on his side of the box due to the fall in FP4.

After launching the first lap, the provisional pole was assigned by Pecco Bagnaia with a 1’30 ”910 and they canceled the first lap launched with Marc Márquez riding the Italian’s wheel even though he had already beaten it. The Italian doubled his. bet with 1’30 “699, but Fabio Quartararo accepted the challenge by placing his 1’30” 688 on top when they finished the first round. After two favorites in pole position, Jorge Martín temporarily completed the first row and Aleix Espargaró has the second Bastianini and Zarco’s Ducati and the three Honda closes.

Marc Márquez started alone this time and the Quartararo wheel was ‘hidden’ by Alex Rins and Enea Bastianini while the two Ducati officials covered their backs. Bagnaia regained the provisional pole by putting two tenths in the previous hour of ‘Diablo’ with Miller at the wheel of his partner at 69 thousandths and already took the first two spots.

Aleix Espargaró, who was riding completely alone, lost the opportunity for pole position in T4 but secured the front row. Quartararo lost his pole option in T3 and never regained the front row, he will share second with Bastianini’s Ducati and his compatriot Johann Zarco; Mir and Rins ’two Suzuki will start from the third row with Jorge Martín and they couldn’t help but find Marc Márquez, Pol Espargaró and Taka Nakagami in the fourth row that closed Q2

Marc Márquez also tackled Q2 using only one bike because his mechanic didn’t have time to fix the crash damage sustained at the end of FP4 on turn 9. You know that without the option to just ride for dry turn, but Nor has he sought out anyone with conviction, as if he had ignored the fourth row in which he would be judged.

By Q1, Jorge Martín and Joan Mir had agreed to battle for pole position, being able to surpass the 7 thousandths cut to rookie Bezzecchi. Maverick Viñales will start 14th on the grid, 21st Alex Márquez, the only Honda not to enter a direct fight for pole positions, and 24th Raúl Fernández.