Brazilian GP – Qualifying: Fabio Di Giannantonio takes pole, Quartararo 4th

1,393 days later, Fabio Di Giannantonio is back in pole position in MotoGPHaving made it through Q1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix, the VR46 rider benefited from a few extra laps of dry track experience compared to his rivals, allowing him to shave off a few hundredths of a second with his Ducati. The Italian hadn't qualified at the front of the pack since the 2022 Italian Grand Prix and capitalized on the chaos during Q2 to secure his place.

Indeed, more than half of the riders in this session crashed while pushing the limits on a circuit they still know very little about, at least in dry conditions. Although they were among the riders who lost their bikes, Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Márquez, who contested Q2 with a single bike to push hard in the final minutes, completed the front row. After making it through Q1, the Italian missed the benchmark time by just 70 thousandths of a second.

Another big surprise in Q2: the fourth fastest time of fabio quartararoThe small, fast Goiânia circuit seems to somewhat mitigate Yamaha's performance deficit compared to its rivals. Having provisionally qualified on the fourth row for much of the race, the Frenchman produced one of his trademark laps on his final effort, finishing just 151 thousandths of a second off pole position.

Repeated falls in Brazil

Jorge Martín was a credible contender for pole position, but he too crashed at the very end of the session while improving his time. He ultimately finished fifth. Ai Ogura completed the second row after a promising Saturday morning, during which he was fastest in FP2.

Pecco Bagnaia suffered a heavy crash in sector 3 during his first run and qualified only eleventh. Pedro Acosta also crashed shortly after, in sector 2, and managed only ninth. The two riders flanked Johann Zarco in the standings. Despite having the best Honda, the Frenchman couldn't find the key to putting together a satisfactory lap after his impressive performance the previous day.

Local favorite Diogo Moreira once again gave it his all to qualify for Q2, but to no avail. While the Brazilian was in the top two during the opening minutes of Q1, he made a time-consuming mistake on his second run, in sector 3. He thus finished fourth in Q1, which translates to fourteenth position on the starting grid. He will start the Sprint, as well as the Race, just ahead of Franco Morbidelli, an Italian of Brazilian descent, who is also, in a way, competing in his home Brazilian Grand Prix.

Raúl Fernández, who failed to advance from Q1 on Friday afternoon after finishing outside the top 10, could only manage sixteenth place in qualifying. The poor performance was even more pronounced for KTM: Maverick Viñales, Brad Binder, and Enea Bastianini finished at the back of Q1, with the Italian being the only one not within the same second as Marco Bezzecchi. They will therefore start from positions 20 to 22 on the grid for the weekend's races.

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MotoGP – Brazilian Grand Prix 

The Qualifications ranking: