Pecco Bagnaia claimed his 12th front row start of 2021 for Valencia’s MotoGP finale despite a qualifying crash.

His Ricardo Tormo Circuit nemesis, turn two, caught the Ducati Lenovo rider out once again, having set a pole-worthy 1’30.000 lap time and denied his teammate another Tissot watch. The improving Pramac youngster Jorge Martin, however, swept through to steal the show in the final seconds after Jack Miller too, crashed out.

“The only thing that has remained compared to past years is that I continued crashing in turn two,” Bagnaia joked on his recurring bad luck at the Valencia track. “I don't know why but I crash always in turn two.

“I feel great today, but the pole position was more deserved by Jorge that did an incredible first sector. I'm happy because FP4 was very good for us. I feel great also with used tyres and I think that we have a great possibility to make a really good race tomorrow.

“This is the luck to have more bikes on the grid,” he continued on Ducati’s preparation for Sunday’s 27-lap race. “Because everyone can try and do more laps with different tyres. Jack did a lot of laps with the hard and I tried the soft but I think that the choice will be for all the grid the same - medium will be the best one. The soft was not so bad so I'm thinking about it but medium for me was very competitive. Is more than one week that we are working on that area with used tyres, that has given to me a lot more confidence. So I'm happy with this work.

“I think that the layout of this track is not easy for our bike but maybe also for other bikes. We can make less difference in the acceleration and braking because the grip is not so high and we struggle a bit but I've seen that also other bikes are struggling in the same way. Normally when we have grip we can brake so much harder and in this track is very difficult because it's very easy to have front locking and to lose the rear on the entry. So I struggle a bit in the past years for that but this year, fortunately, I was feeling better. Also looking at the data of Jack who last year was doing a big difference compared to me, I understand better how to ride in this track - that you have to be more calm on the gas and it's a different type of riding style compare other tracks.”

Bagnaia’s push for pole also saw him assisting another rider on track - Valentino Rossi. In both Q2 runs the Ducati star provided his mentor a tow, with Rossi completing Saturday 10th overall. When asked if it was a planned strategy, Bagnaia quickly replied that it wasn’t but hat he was happy to help.

“No, but I have seen him enter on track before me” he confirmed. “So is the minimum that I can do. He's given a lot to us and is the minimum that I can do.

“From the first year, in the first test, I was always on top in the time attack, but is something that I really like to do,” he continued, reflecting on his recent dominance in qualifying mode and his clean sweep of 10 consecutive front row starts.

“From Assen, I started to have more confidence with this bike and I worked also for the out-lap and this give to me a lot more performance for doing a perfect lap. I don't know perfectly what changes compared to the first part of the season but now I feel so great on the time attack. I know that our potential is very high with our bike and I think that for us is a bit easier to be so competitive for one lap.”