MotoGP: Jorge Martin smashes lap record at San Marino Grand Prix to secure pole in Misano, Francesco Bagnaia third

Jorge Martin incredibly managed to smash his own lap record to take pole position at the San Marino Grand Prix in Misano.

The Prima Pramac Racing rider finished nearly four tenths of a second ahead of the rest of the field at Misano and took his place on pole for the first time this season.

Martin first set the record on lap three with a time of 1:30.832, but somehow managed to cut his time even further by more than four tenths of a second on his sixth lap at 1:30.390.

Brad Binder began Q2 in the fastest fashion, while reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia did not get off to the best of starts after seeing his opening lap deleted due to exceeding track limits.

Marco Bezzecchi set what was briefly the fastest lap of the day on the second run round the circuit, before Martin entered the fray with some incredible riding.

Bezzechi would finish second in Q2 after coming 0.397 seconds behind Martin, while Ducati rider Bagnaia came third and was 0.436 seconds adrift of Martin.

Speaking after the race, Martin told TNT Sports: “It was a great lap and a great weekend overall. I’ve been super competitive with the practices in terms of pace.

“I took a lot of risks to get this pole, and I’m so proud of myself and the team to be in this position.”

Meanwhile in Q1, Aleix Espargaro, Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli, Miguel Oliveira and Jack Miller were among the stand-out names aiming to progress into Q2.

It was Oliveira (CryptoData RNF MotoGp Team) that finished top with a time of 1:31.272, and was joined in the top two by Espargaro, who was 0.157 seconds further adrift.

It was ultimately a disappointing performance from Pol Espargaro, who suffered a third crash of the weekend and finished bottom of the pile.

There would have been an incredible sense of frustration for Quartararo, who missed out on a place in Q2 and a fight for pole by coming only 0.038 seconds behind Espargaro.

Elsewhere, Jack Miller finished down in eighth and will start the sprint race down in 18th.

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