MotoGP Austria: Martin smashes lap record to steal pole from Bagnaia in qualifying

Qualifying for the MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix was topped by Jorge Martin, who beat Francesco Bagnaia to pole.

Bagnaia led the session after the first run, and pole seemed to be his for the taking. But the 1:27.889 from Bagnaia on his final lap was not enough to beat Martin, who took pole with a 1:27.748.

The lap record coming into this weekend was a 1:28.544 by Marco Bezzecchi last year, meaning an improvement of almost 0.8 seconds by Martin.

Marc Marquez rounded out the front row, setting his best lap alone at the end of the session after following Bagnaia on the first run, but he couldn't join Martin and Bagnaia in the 1:27s.

After Aprilia's nightmare Friday, there were more encouraging signs in qualifying, with Aleix Esaprgaro fourth and Maverick Vinales sixth. Jack Miller starts between them on the leading KTM after coming through Q1.

Pol Espargaro joined Miller in advancing from Q1 to Q2, which meant Pedro Acosta was knocked out. The GasGas rider will start 14th, as Miguel Oliveira beat him to third in Q1; the Portuguese unlucky to miss out on Q2 as he set an identical fastest time to Espargaro, but the KTM test rider's second-fastest lap was better than Oliveria's.

In Q2, Espargaro was 10th fastest after crashing at turn three on his final run. Brad Binder was the slowest of the Q2 runners in 12th, over one second slower than Martin's pole time, while row three is an all-Ducati affair with Enea Bastianini seventh, Franco Morbidelli eighth, and Marco Bezzecchi ninth.