MotoGP: Vinales Takes First Pole of 2020 in Austrian GP Qualifying

The MotoGP qualifying session in Austria for round four of the 2020 World Championship got underway with heavy skies but a dry track, in contrast to the forecasted weather. 

Q1 saw the first 1’23s of the weekend, with Johann Zarco topping the session from Valentino Rossi, who moved through to Q2. 

After Friday things seemed quite dire for Maverick Vinales, who seemed to be suffering with rear grip problems akin to those he suffered in Brno where he finished 14th one week ago. There was clearly a turnaround on Friday night, though, for the Spaniard, as he topped FP3 on Saturday morning proceeded to take his first pole of 2020 in qualifying. The top speed disadvantage of the Yamaha will hurt the M1 riders tomorrow, but if Vinales can make a strong start he has the opportunity to make use of the empty track to exploit its corner speed advantage. 

Jack Miller put a late lap in to take second on the grid. The Australian has not scored a point in the Red Bull Ring before, but he has given himself a strong opportunity to change that statistic quite dramatically tomorrow. 

On the back of the front row will be Fabio Quartararo, who keeps up his 100% front row record for 2020. Like Vinales, he will suffer for straight line speed in the race, but if he gets clear air the #20 could prove problematic for the others. 

Others such as Andrea Dovizioso, who before FP4 was announced to not be continuing with Ducati in 2021. As is tradition, the announcement of leaving the Bologna marque inspired the #04’s best qualifying performance of the season so far, as he took fourth place.

Dovizioso’s race pace looks strong, but so does Pol Espargaro’s. The Spaniard looks to have a couple of tenths on everyone, but will have work to do in the early stages as he starts from fifth on the grid, ahead of Joan Mir with a season-best qualifying for the Suzuki rider. 

Franco Morbidelli has shown good speed all weekend but could only manage seventh fastest in Q2 and will start alongside Alex Rins and Johann Zarco on the third row; whilst Takaaki Nakagami starts 11th from Miguel Oliveira and Valentino Rossi. 

Only half a second split the Q2 riders, first to 12th. Still, for the likes of Rossi, Nakagami and Oliveira, the fourth row is not ideal, and despite their promising pace will struggle to make a good result from there tomorrow. 

Just missing out on Q2 was Danilo Petrucci, the Italian bested by Rossi on the #46’s final run. Petrucci will be joined by Aleix Espargaro, with whom Petrucci was angry with for blocking after Q1  and Cal Crutchlow on the fifth row; whilst Iker Lecuona heads up row six from last week’s winner Brad Binder and Alex Marquez, making it an all-rookie affair on the sixth row. 

Stefan Bradl will start from the head of row seven in 19th, ahead of Bradley Smith and Tito Rabat, and Francesco Bagnaia’s replacement, Michele Pirro, will start alone from the eighth and final row in 22nd.