San Marino MotoGP, Qualifying Results | Bagnaia pole amid Misano crash-fest

Pecco Bagnaia will start on pole position for the second MotoGP round in succession after heading up a Ducati 1-2 for the San Marino MotoGP in an incident-packed, crash-fest of a qualifying session at Misano.

Fresh from celebrating his maiden victory at Aragon a week ago, Bagnaia will attempt to finish what he started at Misano 12 months ago when he crashed from the lead during the closing stages of the Emilia-Romagna MotoGP. 

Having been made to wait a year to finally get that elusive first win under his belt, Bagnaia will be confident he won’t need to linger so long on another success as he cracked the lap record by just over a hundredth of a second with a 1m 31.065secs effort.

That placed him three tenths clear of team-mate Jack Miller, who gave Ducati a much desired 1-2 on home soil, as well as nudging championship leader Fabio Quartararo onto the outside of the front row.

The Frenchman maintained his stellar qualifying record in 2021 but showed the first signs of a pressure in chasing Bagnaia’s time, the Yamaha rider sliding off in the closing stages.

He wasn’t the only rider to fall, however, with Marc Marquez suffering another leery off while shadowing Bagnaia to end up seventh, while Aleix Espargaro was looking impressive on the Aprilia RS-GP before coming off in the final stages, the Spaniard demoted to eighth by the late improvements.

Jorge Martin heads up row two on the Pramac Ducati, followed by team-mate Johann Zarco, while Pol Espargaro made the most of Marquez’s tumble to lead the way for Honda in sixth position.

Alex Rins joins Marquez and Espargaro on row three as the leading Suzuki rider in ninth, ahead of Maverick Vinales, who was particularly impressive to reach Q2 in only his second outing aboard the Aprilia RS-GP. 

Defending champion Joan Mir and Enea Bastianini - who reached Q2 via Q1 with Marquez - complete the fourth row.

Elsewhere, there was disappointment for Valentino Rossi in front of his home fans as a low-side left him down on a back row he will share with Petronas SRT Yamaha team-mate and MotoGP returnee Andrea Dovizioso in 24th.

2021 San Marino MotoGP | Misano | Qualifying RESULTS