Just like a week ago at Aragon, Bagnaia led his Ducati team-mate Jack Miller to take his third pole of the season, while championship leaders Quartararo retained third place despite a late fall at Turn 1 in an accident-riddled qualifying.
Suzuki’s Joan Mir set the initial benchmark with 1: 33.151 minutes, although this was immediately exceeded by Francesco Bagnaia on the factory Ducati with 1: 32.844 minutes.
In the next few minutes, the provisional pole went to Fabio Quartararo, Aleix Espargaro, Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez, before Bagnaia returned to the top with 1: 31.664 minutes.
The second stint of the home hero at the top lasted only seconds when Quartararo again moved the goal posts with 1: 31.367 minutes on the factory Yamaha.
Bagnaia lit the timing screens two minutes before the end to set a new lap record of 1: 31.065 minutes and that proved enough to keep him on pole in front of his home crowd.
Miller was able to avoid the late yellow flag and lead his factory Ducati to 1.31.314 minutes for second place.
Quartararo looked like he was the only rider who could challenge Bagnaia’s pole but slipped off his Yamaha at the start of his final flying lap on the first corner.
But his 1: 31.367 minutes was good enough to keep him in the front row for Sunday’s race, while Jorge Martin leads the second row on his Pramac Ducati.
Martin beat his teammate Johann Zarco by 0.173 seconds, with Pol Espargaro the leading Honda runner in sixth after teammate Marquez – who had to get through Q1 – crashed late on the Tramonto right-hander while trying to shadow Bagnaia.
Marquez ended up seventh due to Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, who was right in Q2 after resuming a lap after FP3 to ensure his safe passage.
Teammate Maverick Vinales secured 10th place on his second Aprilia appearance, with Suzuki’s Alex Rins between them.
Mir’s sister Suzuki had a nightmare session, a problem with his front tire forced him into the pit lane before his final lap – while Quartararo’s crash just ahead of him meant there was nothing he could do to improve to 11th place.
Avintia’s Enea Bastianini sailed through Q1 – but had a low-speed crash at the end of the session – but couldn’t do better than 12 on his two-year-old Ducati.
Takaaki Nakagami was denied a seat in Q2 after the LCR Honda rider crashed late on the Tramonto right-hander late in Q1.
He leads the Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro, Avintias Luca Marini and Franco Morbidelli, who qualified 16th for his first race as a Yamaha works driver and his first race since the German GP in June.
Brad Binder also fell late in the first quarter, which made an already tough day for KTM worse. The South African finished in 17th place ahead of Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl.
For Alex Marquez, who had to break off a fast lap due to Nakagami’s fall, it didn’t work out and ended up in 19th place ahead of Iker Lecuona from Tech 3 and KTM’s factory colleague Miguel Oliveira.
Danilo Petrucci leads an all-Italian last row on the sister Tech 3 KTM, with Petronas SRT duo Valentino Rossi – who crashed early in Q1 – and the returning Andrea Dovizioso on the two-year-old Yamaha completing the field.