After an intense battle at Mugello, the riders return for the second time to Spain, for the 9th round of the calendar at Catalunya, for the 2022 edition of the Catalan GP.

The first qualy session saw another 15 riders group, like last week round. With Brad Binder, Bastianini, Bezzecchi, Oliveira, and Maverick Viñales as posible candidates for 2 spots at the next qualy session. A congested first stint saw Viñales and Bezzecchi up at provisional top 2, with Nakagami and Morbidelli just some decimals behind; As riders prepared for the 2nd stint.

The last minutes of the session saw a contested battle for the 2 positions on top. As Mir, Brad Binder, Bastianini, Bezzecchi and Viñales all started a hot lap and were constantly changing the standings, as the riders crossed the line. With the last one mentioned getting up front with few riders left on flying lap. It looked like Bezzecchi was the rider that would join Viñales at the next session, but an unexpected last attempt from Takaaki Nakagami negate the spot for the young Italian rider and was the Japanese on the LCR Honda who with Viñales, advanced to the next session.

Q1 results:

13. Marco Bezzecchi /// 14. Enea Bastianini /// 15. Brad Binder
16. Miguel Oliveira /// 17. Joan Mir /// 18. Franco Morbidelli
19. Andrea Dovizioso /// 20. Remy Gardner ///21. Stefan Brald
22. Michelle Pirro /// 23. Darryl Binder /// 24. Raul Fernandez
25. Alex Marquez

Second qualy was underway as the riders hit the track and started the battle for pole position. Ducati showed his cards, as Martin and Bagnaia went fastest on their first respective attempt. But were quickly surpass by defending champion Fabio Quartararo. With Aleix Espargaro, Johann Zarco and Alex Rins in the mix.

Riders got to the second bike, as they were few minutes left on the clock. A huge lap was needed in order to take pole position. It was Francesco Bagnaia who took the lead at the standings, as the Italian rider broke the track record with a big lap and looked like a Ducati would be at the front on Saturday. But Aleix Espargaro had something else to say abd grab provisional pole with less than a minute left. Bagnaia had a last attempt to recover the pole position, but a poor run on the 3rd sector secured the pole position for the Spaniard at the Aprillia bike. The Italian rider starting on 2nd and the Frenchman of the Yamaha closing the front row.

Q2 results:

1. Aleix Espargaro /// 2. Francesco Bagnaia /// 3. Fabio Quartararo
4. Johann Zarco /// 5. Fabio Di Giannantonio ///6. Jorge Martin
7. Alex Rins /// 8. Maverick Viñales /// 9. Luca Marini
10. Pol Espargaro /// 11. Jack Miller /// 12. Takaaki Nakagami

Another stellar performance for Aleix Espargaro and the Aprillia team, as both want to repeat the same story that happened in Argentina. Dominate the whole weekend and keep the championship contention with Quartararo.