Fabio Quartararo made it two-in-a-row as he claims pole as the AndaluciaGP as Maverick Viñales had his final lap cancelled.
Quartararo delivered a 1:37.007 lap to claim back-to-back pole positions ahead of future teammate Viñales. The Spaniard was faster than Quartararo, but his lap time was cancelled due to exceeding track limits. Pramac’s Francesco Bagnaia rounds out the front row with his best ever qualifying in the MotoGP class in third.
Valentino Rossi lines up behind his VR46 academy man in fourth with Miguel Oliveira in fifth and Franco Morbidelli in sixth. Both Oliveira and Morbidelli both had to fight their way through Q1 where the Oliveira claimed the fastest spot in the session. Jack Miller, Taka Nakagami and Brad Binder make up the third row in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively with Joan Mir in 10th, Danilo Petrucci in eleventh and Pol Espargaro in twelfth.
Both Nakagami and P.Espargaro failed to improve on their times due to human error. Nakagami was set for a higher starting position after topping the timings in Free Practice 3 and Free Practice 4 but a mistake during his last lap saw the Japanese rider run off into the gravel, failing to improve on his time. P.Espargaro took a tumble at turn 2 and was unable to deliver any further competitive lap times. Luckily, he was unharmed by the crash.
LCR Honda CASTROL rider Cal Crutchlow delivered an incredible performance to take thirteenth only days after the Brit received surgery on a broken scaphoid bone in his left wrist. It was Saturday to forget for Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso as he could only manage fourteenth place, making him the third slowest Ducati powered rider ahead of Johann Zarco in fifteenth and Tito Rabat in eighteenth on the Ducati powered Hublot Reale Avintia bikes.
It has been a troublesome weekend for Aprilia so faras Aleix Espargaro suffered several crashes during free practice sessions and Bradley Smith seemed to struggle to find any pace with the factory bike. A.Espargaro will start Sunday’s race from sixteenth whilst Smith lines up in nineteenth.
Red Bull KTM Tech3 manIker Lecuona was another crasher of the weekend. Luckily, the rookie was unharmed by his crashes, but he struggled in Q1 to make any progress and will start from seventeenth.
Suzuki’s Alex Rins is seemly out of place in twentieth but with injury limitations, the Spaniard put on an impressive display to even manage to muscle his Suzuki powered machine around the scorching temperatures of the Circuito de Jerez. Rins was declared fit to ride along with Crutchlow and M.Marquez but the weekend will be a trying one for all three riders.
It’s a rarity that you will see the number 93 in Q1 but the Repsol Honda team found themselves with both riders well outside the Q2 spots. After M.Marquez made a nail-biting comeback for Free Practice 3, he took to the track early on in Q1 but returned to the pits before completing his out lap, hopped off his bike and headed straight for the Repsol lorry.
Teammate Alex Marquez suffered a tumble at turn five in the late stages of qualifying but was unharmed. Alex Marquez will start the race from twenty-first on the grid whilst Mark Marquez made the difficult decision to not participate in the remainder of the weekend due to his healing injury. The world-champion is aiming to be back for Brno is two weeks’ time.
As the mercury is set to rise again tomorrow in this mid-summer heatwave, tenses will be running high on the grid with two big names injured, the world-champion out and rookies wanting to make an impact. Who will come out victorious and who will leave empty-handed?
