On November 7, 2026, at Lusail International Circuit in Qatar, Marco Bezzecchi secured MotoGP pole position with a lap of 1:50.028. The Aprilia rider owned the new outright circuit record, but the qualifying sheet contained another striking detail: every rider on the front row had beaten the record that stood after Friday’s practice.
A record overtaken three times over
Fabio Di Giannantonio had set that benchmark on November 6. His 1:50.406 topped the official Friday classification, ahead of Marc Marquez and Bezzecchi. By the end of Saturday’s Q2, the same three riders occupied the leading positions again, with Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio exchanging places at either end of the trio.
Marquez qualified second in 1:50.294, while Di Giannantonio was third in 1:50.327. Comparing those times with Friday’s record shows that Marquez went 0.112 seconds faster than the old mark, and Di Giannantonio improved his own benchmark by 0.079. Both had gone beneath a circuit record and still missed pole.
Bezzecchi found the bigger gap
Bezzecchi’s advantage over the previous record was 0.378 seconds, calculated from the two official session results. His margin over Marquez was 0.266 seconds; the gap separating Marquez from Di Giannantonio was just 0.033. The front row therefore combined one clear leader with an extremely close contest for second.
The official Q2 result credits Bezzecchi’s best time to his sixth lap out of seven. Motorcycle Sports’ qualifying report independently records the same lap and margin. The result was more than a change of name at the top: three times on Saturday’s sheet would have led Friday’s entire session.
That comparison also draws a precise boundary. Fourth-placed Raul Fernandez recorded 1:50.457, just outside the previous benchmark. Exactly the first three in Q2 finished below Friday’s 1:50.406. The calculation concerns the best laps in these two sessions; it does not assume identical conditions or explain why the improvement happened.
Aprilia’s pace extended beyond pole
Fernandez’s fourth place and Ai Ogura’s sixth gave Aprilia three motorcycles in the top six. Francesco Bagnaia placed his Ducati between the Trackhouse pair in fifth, as The Race’s report confirms. Bagnaia’s 1:50.592 beat Ogura’s 1:50.596 by only four thousandths of a second.
Those tiny gaps elsewhere make Bezzecchi’s pole stand out. Di Giannantonio had arrived at qualifying as the circuit’s latest record holder and left it with a faster personal best, yet two riders were ahead of him. At Lusail, improving a record was enough for the front row, but Bezzecchi raised the requirement for first place.
Sources and further reading
- MotoGP: official Saturday Q2 classification
- MotoGP: official Friday practice classification
- The Race: Bezzecchi dominates Qatar qualifying
- Motorcycle Sports: qualifying times and margins
- EFE via ABC Color: Bezzecchi sets a new outright record
