Aprilia continued to top every session up to Q2, after RNF’s Miguel Oliveira was fastest in third practice despite a crash, plus he topped Q1 to advance to the pole shootout.
Setting the early pace, Espargaro would ultimately be denied a second home pole by Ducati’s Bagnaia after the latter fired in a 1m38.639s to take top spot by 0.104 seconds.
Oliveira completed the front row, his first front row since his Portuguese GP pole in 2020 when he was with Tech3 KTM, while Maverick Vinales was fourth on the third Aprilia inside the top four.
Marc Marquez was the only Japanese bike rider to make it into Q2 but could do no more than 12th on his Honda.
The eight-time world champion set the initial benchmark in Q2 on a used soft tyre following his Q1 outing, in which he shadowed KTM’s Jack Miller to go second fastest.
Marquez’s 1m40.665s was instantly blitzed, with Espargaro coming out on top after the opening salvo of laps with a 1m39.207s.
Brad Binder on the sole KTM in the Q2 session was next to go fastest with a 1m39.176s, before Vinales edged ahead with a 1m39.099s.
A 1m38.752s from Espargaro – who was battling chatter issues on the front-end - in the closing three minutes of the session returned him to the top of the order.
But it would not be enough to halt Bagnaia’s charge to a sixth pole, as the championship leader set a new lap record of 1m38.639s.
Source: Autosport