MANDALIKA, Indonesia (Reuters) -Aprilia's Marco Bezzecchi seized a dominant pole position in qualifying for the Indonesian Grand Prix after demolishing the lap record at Mandalika on Saturday, while newly-crowned 2025 MotoGP champion Marc Marquez qualified a lowly ninth.
Bezzecchi's blistering lap of one minute and 28.832 seconds was enough to comfortably finish ahead of Spanish duo Fermin Aldeguer, riding for Gresini Racing, and Raul Fernandez of Trackhouse, who will line up second and third, respectively.
"It's true that I'm quite quick, but the pace was pretty close with many other riders that are super quick, and you know in MotoGP you can never relax," Bezzecchi said.
"I'm happy for the qualifying for sure because it (is) also great for tomorrow, not only today and this is important.
"Now we still have to do the main part of the weekend that are the races. So, let's keep ourselves focused and give our best."
The session also marked a significant milestone for Aldeguer, the 20-year-old rookie securing his first-ever front row start in MotoGP.
"We put different goals for this race - try to improve the Friday's, the qualifying," Aldeguer said.
"Super happy because we are working on ourselves, without looking at other riders, we are super focused ... Starting at second position is a good opportunity to look at our potential and try to judge."
Yamaha's Alex Rins and KTM's Pedro Acosta rounded up the top five.
Meanwhile, two-times MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia struggled to maintain the momentum from his flawless Japanese Grand Prix weekend. The Ducati rider missed out on Q2 and will start a disappointing 16th on the grid for Saturday's sprint and Sunday's race.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
