Premier class qualifying brought the first real butterflies of the season and although the outcome hardly required a crystal ball, it still made for a good tale. Fresh off a nervy Q1, Pecco Bagnaia set the early reference in Q2, but the Marquez household immediately harassed him and dipped into the 1:28s. Marc Marquez seemed quite tempted by the lap record, but some late yellow flags put that to rest and the new factory Ducati recruit settled for a first pole position in red – a tenth and a half faster than brother Alex, who adds some Gresini blue to the front row. Meanwhile, Bagnaia’s own front row bid was being challenged by rookie Ai Ogura, but the experienced Italian regrouped on his second outing to reclaim third place on the grid.
Benefitting from a solid reference from fellow Q1 graduate Bagnaia, Jack Miller also managed to sneak ahead of the rookie into 4th position, but a top 5 in your first qualifying session and leading the Aprilia charge isn’t too shabby. Quite fantastic even. Miller and Ogura will be joined on the second row of the grid by Franco Morbidelli – at least in today’s sprint, as the Italian was handed a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race after impeding Bagnaia on Friday.
Pedro Acosta opens row three with a time half a second off pole and lines up alongside the Aprilias of Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi – although the latter added another crash to the list with a turn 3 tumble in the final handful of minutes of Q2. All three riders will be benefitting from Morbidelli’s grid penalty on Sunday, dropping him to 9th position.
Fabio Quartararo in 10th place was six tenths of a second slower than the leader and three tenths off the top Yamaha, opening the fourth row ahead of Joan Mir (who also ended the session in the gravel at turn 3) and Johann Zarco. Fabio Di Giannantonio narrowly missed out on Q2 by five hundredths of a second and will be sharing fifth row with Brad Binder and rookie Fermin Aldeguer. Luca Marini, Miguel Oliveira and Maverick Viñales make up row six, with Alex Rins fronting row seven ahead of Enea Bastianini and Somkiat Chantra. The home crowd was going wild for the rookie despite his early struggles and his grid penalty for riding slowly on the racing line, which will drop him behind replacement rider Lorenzo Savadori on Sunday’s grid.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Prev |
| 1 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Ducati | 01:28.782 | ||
| 2 | 73 | Alex Marquez | Ducati | 01:28.928 | 0.146 | 0.146 |
| 3 | 63 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 01:28.955 | 0.173 | 0.027 |
| 4 | 43 | Jack Miller | Yamaha | 01:29.090 | 0.308 | 0.135 |
| 5 | 79 | Ai Ogura | Aprilia | 01:29.134 | 0.352 | 0.044 |
| 6 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | Ducati | 01:29.171 | 0.389 | 0.037 |
| 7 | 37 | Pedro Acosta | KTM | 01:29.320 | 0.538 | 0.149 |
| 8 | 25 | Raul Fernandez | Aprilia | 01:29.367 | 0.585 | 0.047 |
| 9 | 72 | Marco Bezzecchi | Aprilia | 01:29.381 | 0.599 | 0.014 |
| 10 | 20 | Fabio Quartararo | Yamaha | 01:29.389 | 0.607 | 0.008 |
| 11 | 36 | Joan Mir | Honda | 01:29.422 | 0.640 | 0.033 |
| 12 | 5 | Johann Zarco | Honda | 01:29.609 | 0.827 | 0.187 |
| Q1 Results: | ||||||
| Q2 | 63 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 01:29.180 | ||
| Q2 | 43 | Jack Miller | Yamaha | 01:29.186 | 0.006 | 0.006 |
| 13 | 49 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Ducati | 01:29.237 | 0.057 | 0.051 |
| 14 | 33 | Brad Binder | KTM | 01:29.468 | 0.288 | 0.231 |
| 15 | 54 | Fermin Aldeguer | Ducati | 01:29.484 | 0.304 | 0.016 |
| 16 | 10 | Luca Marini | Honda | 01:29.532 | 0.352 | 0.048 |
| 17 | 88 | Miguel Oliveira | Yamaha | 01:29.587 | 0.407 | 0.055 |
| 18 | 12 | Maverick Viñales | KTM | 01:29.701 | 0.521 | 0.114 |
| 19 | 42 | Alex Rins | Yamaha | 01:29.733 | 0.553 | 0.032 |
| 20 | 23 | Enea Bastianini | KTM | 01:29.916 | 0.736 | 0.183 |
| 21 | 35 | Somkiat Chantra | Honda | 01:30.076 | 0.896 | 0.160 |
| 22 | 32 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 01:30.630 | 1.450 | 0.554 |
