Portugal Colonial - Bezzecchi takes pole for Valencia sprint and MotoGP

The 27-year-old Italian continued his outstanding form from last weekend when he crushed the opposition with a commanding win in Portugal.

This time it was a touch narrower as his new lap record time of 1min 28.83sec was just 0.02sec quicker than Alex Marquez (Ducati-Gresini).

"It was super cool. I had a lot of fun in that lap," said Bezzecchi who posted his fifth pole of the season.

Fellow Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati-VR46) qualified third and will join them, on the front row of the grid.

Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia), Pedro Acosta (KTM) and 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) are on the second row.

Two-time world champion Francesco Bagnaia failed to make the second qualifying session and will start 16th after suffering a problem with his Ducati at the end of Q1.

Last year's champion Jorge Martin (Aprilia), who returned to competition after being injured in a crash in Japan at the end of September, will start 17th.

The Spaniard, who has missed 14 of the 22 races this season, is using the race to "get some laps in and gather information" for next year, rather than fight for the podium this weekend.

Meanwhile, the new world champion Marc Marquez will again be absent because of an injured shoulder from a crash in Indonesia.

The sprint takes place at 1400 GMT.

M.A.Vaz--PC