MotoGP: Quartararo on pole again in Jerez

Qualifying for the fourth round of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship got underway in a windy Jerez with Fabio Quartararo looking to take his fourth consecutive pole position at the Spanish track. 

In Q1, it was Franco Morbidelli who moved through to Q2 atop the time sheets, along with Brad Binder who was second in the opening session.

Q2 once again belonged to Fabio Quartararo, who was able to secure his fourth Jerez pole position in four MotoGP races at the home of the Spanish Grand Prix. The Frenchman was undeniable last season, but will have to contend with some tyre drop tomorrow if he is to repeat his successes of 2020. 

Joining the #20 on the front row will be Franco Morbidelli and Jack Miller. Morbidelli did well to come from Q1 to the front row, while Miller was able to be strategic about his Q2 session by latching onto the back of his teammate, Francesco Bagnaia, and using the Italian as a marker to drag himself up to third place.

Bagnaia himself was able to salvage a fourth place start, after looking like he would be consigned to row three or four for much of the session. On the second row, Bagnaia will be joined by Takaaki Nakagami – back on the 2020 RC213V chassis and back on form – and Johann Zarco who was able to knock Maverick Vinales off the second row with his final lap. 

Vinales, then, will start tomorrow’s race in seventh, and will have a lot of work to do if he is to challenge for the podium. The same could be said for Aleix Espargaro, who will start eighth, but that the Aprilia has become a bike that is in the rostrum conversation is a positive in itself.

Suzuki, on the other hand, is still searching for its first win of 2021, and if it is to find it tomorrow it would have to come from either row three or row four, as Alex Rins qualified ninth, and Joan Mir 10th. Mir will be joined by Brad Binder and Stefan Bradl on the fourth row.

Pol Espargaro’s difficulties in time attack mode with the Honda RC213V continued, as he could not get out of Q1 and will start from 13th tomorrow. Marc Marquez will join the #44 on row five in 15th place, meaning Miguel Oliveira, who qualified 14th, will start in a Repsol Honda sandwich for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix. 

Enea Bastianini qualified 16th, ahead of Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini, who ensured row six will be an all-Italian affair tomorrow; while Danilo Petrucci will start from the front of the ninth row, alongside Alex Marquez and Iker Lecuona. 

Lorenzo Savadori and Tito Rabat – substituting for the injured Jorge Martin at Pramac this weekend – will start 22nd and 23rd respectively, as they line up on the back row.