Fabio Di Giannantonio takes Brazil MotoGP pole despite late crash in chaotic Q2

Fabio Di Giannantonio secured the first MotoGP pole position at Goiania since 1989 despite crashing in Q2.

Di Giannantonio went down at turn four, which has turned out to be the most popular corner to crash at in Goiania this weekend. When he went down he'd already set a 1m17.410s lap for provisional pole, and this went unbeaten to the finish.

It was just Di Giannantonio's second MotoGP pole position and his first in fully dry weather, after he took pole at Mugello in 2022 in mixed conditions.

He was also far from the only rider to crash at turn four in qualifying, or even in Q2. Pedro Acosta went down there on his second lap, and Marc Marquez had the same crash only a lap later. In FP2, Marco Bezzecchi crashed there, and so did Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Di Giannantonio and Bezzecchi both advanced to Q2 from Q1, and ended the second session 1-2, Bezzecchi missing out on pole for the first time since Sepang last October but salvaging a second place from a weekend that had been far from ideal for him before qualifying.

Marquez, too, was not too badly hampered by his turn four crash, the Spaniard able to qualify third on a track he has openly stated does not suit his style.

Championship leader Pedro Acosta was slightly worse off for his crash, finishing Q2 in ninth. But he was by far the best KTM, as the other three RC16s were all unable to make it into Q2 and occupied the last three positions in Q1, Maverick Vinales leading Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini.

In that sense, KTM's weekend is looking almost like Yamaha's Thailand weekend, while Yamaha is actually making a decent showing in Brazil, on paper at least. Both Fabio Quartararo and Toprak Razgatliglu were directly into Q2 from Practice, and Quartararo was fast in qualifying, finishing an incredibly fourth on a V4 M1 that looked incapable of even a top-10 in Thailand.

Razgatlioglu, on the other hand, was less competitive, and his 1m18.422s lap would have put him second-last in Q1, indicating the margin for improvement in dry conditions that still exists for the three-time World Superbike Champion.

Fermin Aldeguer had an exceptional qualifying to finish seventh on his second day on the bike this year. He was one place ahead of his Gresini Ducati teammate, Alex Marquez.

Francesco Bagnaia's qualifying fell apart after nine corners when he crashed on his first flying lap. He then had two laps cancelled for yellow flags on the second run on his second bike, and qualified 11th, 0.7 seconds slower than Di Giannantonio.