MotoGP: Martin secures Spielberg pole

After five weeks off over the summer, the MotoGP World Championship returns to action this weekend at the Red Bull Ring for the Styrian Grand Prix. Francesco Bagnaia topped the combined practice times ahead of qualifying on Saturday.

In Q1, a late lap from Alex Marquez put him in second place behind Enea Bastianini, but the #23’s lap was cancelled, meaning the Spaniard, Marquez, topped the session from Miguel Oliveira, who would be the only KTM in Q2. 

Q2 was once again decided by track limits. Jorge Martin set the first ever sub-1’23 lap with a 1’22.994 with his Pramac Ducati. That put the Spaniard on provisional pole, but Fabio Quartararo bettered it by less than a tenth. Quartararo, though, had exceeded track limits at turn nine, quite visibly, and so had his time deleted. That meant it was a second MotoGP pole position for the #89 rookie, Jorge Martin. 

Joining Martin on the front row will be Quartararo, but the Frenchman will line up third. Between Martin and the championship leader will be Francesco Bagnaia, on the factory Ducati. Beating the Desmosedicis tomorrow was always going to be difficult for Quartararo, but it has not been made any easier by the fact that he is behind two of them on the front row.

Two more Ducatis will line up on row two tomorrow, with Jack Miller in fourth place and Johann Zarco in sixth. Between them will be Joan Mir, complete with Suzuki’s new rear squatting device, which makes row two particularly interesting for tomorrow’s Styrian Grand Prix. 

Heading up row three will be Aleix Expargaro, ahead of Marc Marquez. The #93 set the fastest sector one time in his final lap of Q2, but crashed at turn three, ending his chances of challenging for the front row. Completing row three will be Maverick Vinales, which is typically baffling from the Spaniard, who had been much more competitive than ninth place throughout free practice. 

Takaaki Nakagami could only manage 10th, and he will line up at the head of the fourth row alongside Alex Marquez and Miguel Oliveira, the Portuguese only completing one run in Q2 to protect the hand he damaged in yesterday’s FP1 crash at turn three.

Alex Rins just missed out on Q2 by less than half-a-tenth, and will line up 13th tomorrow. Joining him on the fifth row will be Dani Pedrosa, who impressed with fourth place in Q1 after finishing FP4 in sixth, and Pol Espargaro, who was the only Honda to not feature in Q2.

Brad Binder will head up row six tomorrow, alongside Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini; while Iker Lecuona will start from the front of the seventh row ahead of the aforementioned Bastianini, and Lorenzo Savadori who will be hoping for rain after his time-topping performance in FP2 yesterday. 

Danilo Petrucci, confirmed now to be leaving Tech3 at the end of the season to make way for Raul Fernandez, qualified 22nd, and will be joined by Cal Crutchlow, who after five months of not riding is not in the peak of his riding sharpness, on the back row, the Briton having qualified last in his first race replacing the injured Franco Morbidelli.