Aleix Espargaró will start from pole position at his home round, the Catalan GP, in what is set to be a significant and emotional race as he plans to retire at the end of the season. On Saturday, he set a new lap record at the Barcelona circuit with a time of 1m38.190s.
The decisive phase of qualifying began with Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) leading, followed by Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac/Ducati) in third.
However, the positions shifted dramatically during the second set of flying laps. Bagnaia took the lead, and Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas Tech3/KTM) moved into second, just 0.148s behind. Martín dropped to third.
With less than two minutes remaining, Martín and Morbidelli were both ruled out of pole position contention after crashing at turn two. Meanwhile, Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) moved into second place, only to be overtaken by Espargaró (Aprilia).
In his final lap, Espargaró surpassed Bagnaia to claim pole position by a narrow margin of just 0.031s. Binder retained third place, with Acosta finishing fourth. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46/Ducati) secured fifth place, ahead of Martín.
