Pecco Bagnaia took pole position in the first qualifying session of the season in Qatar with a stunning lap to beat the Yamahas.

He finished ahead of  Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales who will start alongside the Ducati man on the front row.

In Q1, it looked like reigning world champion Joan Mir and Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin were the ones to beat for the top two positions to progress into Q2.

However, due to a crash, Martin did not make it into the top two places to progress through to the next stage and Takaaki Nakagami put in a quick lap to take the top space in Q1 along with Mir.

Halfway through Q2, it was the two factory Yamahas and Ducatis who were leading the way as the lap record was broken and the times were getting quicker.

Bagnaia put in an impressive time and snatched pole position with a 1.52.772. He will be joined on the front row by the two Yamahas of Quartararo and Vinales.

Valentino Rossi will head the second row along with the two Ducati’s of Jack Miller and Johann Zarco.

MotoGP| #QatarGP | Day 1 Combined Times

Franco Morbidelli will start the race in seventh place, Aleix Espargaro in eighth place and Alex Rins will start in the top ten.

Q1 qualifiers Mir and Nakagami will start on the fourth row in 11th and 12th place and Pol Espargaro will start his first race on the Repsol Honda in 13th place.

Rookie Enea Bastianini qualified in 13th place, Martin in 14th and KTM’s Miguel Oliveira in 15th place.

Alex Marquez will start tomorrow’s race in 16th, Stefan Bradl in 17th and Luca Marini will start in 18th place.

Three KTM’s line up with Brad Binder starting 19th, Danilo Petrucci in 20th, Iker Lecuona in 21st and Lorenzo Savadori rounds out the field.

Earlier on in FP4, Vinales set the fastest time in the race runs on his factory Yamaha with Zarco close behind. Quartararo also set a good time in the earlier session, close to his teammate. The Yamaha’s setting the pace for the race which will get underway at 20:00 local time.