Aprilia rider and MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin secured pole position for the British Grand Prix at the legendary Silverstone circuit. The Spaniard set a new lap record of 1:56.160 on Saturday, August 8, 2026, clinching the top spot ahead of the 12th round of the season.
Martin claimed pole in a dramatic finish to qualifying, edging out Trackhouse's Raul Fernandez by just 21 thousandths of a second. Fernandez will start the race from second, with his teammate Ai Ogura completing the front row, 189 thousandths behind Martin. This means Aprilia riders occupy all three spots on the front row.
Bezzecchi fifth, Marquez sixth
The second row is led by Fabio Di Giannantonio of Ducati VR46, who missed out on the front row by just 66 thousandths. Behind him sits last year's Silverstone winner, Marco Bezzecchi of Aprilia, in fifth place, 296 thousandths off the pace. Bezzecchi rode with a recently broken collarbone, injured just four weeks ago at the Sachsenring, and briefly held the lap record in the final moments before being surpassed by Fernandez and Martin.
Reigning world champion Marc Marquez on the Ducati finished qualifying in sixth position, 367 thousandths behind the leader. The third row went to Alex Marquez of Gresini and Franco Morbidelli of VR46, while Pedro Acosta on the KTM and Iker Lecuona, who is substituting for the injured Fermin Aldeguer at Gresini this weekend, rounded out the top ten.
Bagnaia disappoints, starts 16th
The big surprise came from Francesco Bagnaia, the other factory Ducati rider. The Italian finished only sixth in the first part of qualifying (Q1), marking his worst qualifying result of the season. He will therefore start the race from 16th on the grid.
Interestingly, since 2014, no pole sitter at Silverstone has gone on to win the race. The last to do so was none other than Marc Marquez.
The sprint race is scheduled for Saturday at 5 PM, while the main race of the 12th MotoGP round starts on Sunday, August 9, at 2 PM. Viewers in Croatia can follow Sport Klub programming via A1, Hrvatski Telekom, Telemach, Total TV, OptiTV, and the EON platform.