Francesco Bagnaia; World champion leads the way once more with pole at Catalan MotoGP ahead of Aleix Espargaro

Current world champion Francesco Bagnaia set a new track record at the Catalan GP to claim pole position.

The Ducati Lenovo rider is currently top of the world championship standings and he has a strong chance of extending his lead after putting down a time of 1:38.639 to start on the front row.

Aprilia had looked competitive in practice and Aleix Espargaro was 0.104 seconds short of the Italian, while the Spaniard’s Aprilia peer Miguel Oliviera was third quickest.

Espargaro was the first to record a 1:38 time as he impressed in his team’s home GP, but it was Bagnaia who was equal - and then above - the challenge as he went quickest, with the rest of the pack unable to better his time.

Jorge Martin put in a strong effort, but with Bagnaia strongest in the final sector there was nobody able to get sufficiently close to him to overhaul the champion.

Maverick Vinales was fourth quickest, with Martin in behind him in fifth. Johann Zarco typically saves his best form for the race itself, and he took the final spot on the second row.

Behind them was Alex Marquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio, and then Brad Binder, who were all around four-tenths slower than Bagnaia. Marco Bezzecchi claimed tenth spot.

The Sprint Race for the action in Catalonia will start at 2:00pm UK time, shown live on TNT Sports.

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