{"id":24404,"date":"2026-05-16T10:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/24404\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T10:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:27:18","slug":"pedro-acosta-clinches-first-pole-of-2026-in-barcelona-motogp-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/24404\/","title":{"rendered":"Pedro Acosta clinches first pole of 2026 in Barcelona MotoGP qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/tag\/pedro-acosta\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pedro Acosta<\/a> claims a sensational pole in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/tag\/motogp\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP<\/a> qualifying as championship rivals Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi endure a difficult qualifying.<\/p>\n<p>Acosta secured pole position at the Catalan Grand Prix with a stunning 1:38.068s lap time, claiming his first pole since the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard controlled the Q2 session throughout, leading after the opening runs before extending his advantage with a superb penultimate lap.<\/p>\n<p>After progressing through Q1, Franco Morbidelli earned a front-row start in second place for the VR46 Racing Team.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Marquez completed the front row in third for Gresini Ducati and will be hoping to bounce back after a difficult weekend in France.<\/p>\n<p>Raul Fernandez narrowly missed out on the front row for Trackhouse in fourth, with Johann Zarco lining up alongside him in fifth.<\/p>\n<p>Fabio Di Giannantonio rounded out the second row in sixth place, while Fabio Quartararo will head the third row after qualifying seventh.<\/p>\n<p>Brad Binder qualified eighth for KTM, with Jorge Martin taking ninth after successfully advancing from Q1 earlier on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Joan Mir leads the fourth row for Honda in 10th place, ahead of Pramac Yamaha rider Jack Miller in 11th.<\/p>\n<p>Completing the top 12 was championship leader Marco Bezzecchi, whose Q2 session ended prematurely following a crash.<\/p>\n<p>Francesco Bagnaia narrowly missed out on a place in Q2 after qualifying 13th for the Catalan Grand Prix, with fellow Italian Enea Bastianini ending the session in 14th.<\/p>\n<p>Fermin Aldeguer crashed at Turn 5 on his final flying lap in Q1 and finished the session in 15th place.<\/p>\n<p>Luca Marini will lead the sixth row of the grid after qualifying 16th for Honda, lining up alongside Maverick Vi\u00f1ales, who continues his return from injury.<\/p>\n<p>Fresh from securing his maiden MotoGP podium at Le Mans, Ai Ogura will start 18th in Catalunya. Alongside him on the grid is factory Yamaha rider Alex Rins in 19th.<\/p>\n<p>MotoGP rookie Diogo Moreira qualified 20th for LCR Honda and will start both races from the seventh row.<\/p>\n<p>Rounding out the grid for Yamaha are Augusto Fernandez and Toprak Razgatl\u0131o\u011flu in 21st and 22nd, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pedro Acosta claims a sensational pole in MotoGP qualifying as championship rivals Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi endure&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,12665,1322],"class_list":{"0":"post-24404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-catalangp","10":"tag-motogp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}