MotoGP: Bagnaia takes fourth straight pole, Quartararo 15th

The MotoGP World Championship returns to Misano this weekend, having last raced at the Italian venue five weeks ago. With much colder weather than in September, and rain throughout Friday, the drying line that appeared in FP4 created a difficult situation for the riders, who had to go into qualifying with little-to-no experience of those track conditions. 

Several riders tried slicks in FP4, but the only ones to find any real speed with them were Francesco Bagnaia, Iker Lecuona and Fabio Quartararo, all of whom would be present in Q1. 

The speed of those three in FP4 would carry over to Q1, as they were three of the strongest riders in the session, along with Alex Marquez. It was Bagnaia who topped Q1 by over 0.7 seconds, but the battle for second went down to the wire, with Lecuona in the end taking it from Quartararo. 

As the speed carried from FP4 to Q1, it carried from Q1 to Q2. Bagnaia and Lecuona dominated the early stages of Q2 and, although the others made up the difference towards the end, Bagnaia’s early time proved unbeatable, and he took his fourth successive pole position. With Quartararo down on row five, there is a good chance for Bagnaia to resume his erosion of the Frenchman’s (significant) points lead.

Lecuona was eventually removed from the front row, and a crash late on ended his chances of a debut top three start. In place of what would have been a dream qualifying for the #27 came what was a perfect qualifying for Ducati, as Jack Miller and Luca Marini joined Bagnaia on the front row, which for Marini was his first in MotoGP.

Pol Espargaro occupied third place until Marini’s late lap propelled him to the front row, but in the end the Spaniard would qualify fourth as the top Honda. On the second row, the Spaniard will be joined by Miguel Oliveira and Franco Morbidelli, the Italian putting in a superb late charge for the second row, knocking Marc Marquez to the third, which as the only rider with an inline-four bike in Q2, was deeply impressive.

From row three Marc Marquez will have work to do to find himself on back-to-back podiums after his Austin success, but he was lucky to set a competitive time at all after almost going through the front door at turn two early in the session. His last lap ended at turn six, losing the front moments after Jack Miller had saved a front slide just ahead of him in the same corner. The Tech 3 KTM duo of Lecuona and Danilo Petrucci will join Marquez on the third row.

Johann Zarco looked set to improve from 10th place on his final lap, but a crash at turn 13 when he touched the exit kerb with too much lean angle while chasing Bagnaia saw him throw away any opportunity to improve, and he will start from the front of the fourth row tomorrow. Alongside the #5 will be Aleix Espargaro, and Jorge Martin, who crashed twice in Q2.

For Quartararo, Iker Lecuona’s late lap in Q2 cost him an appearance in the second qualifying session for the first time in 2021, and with Bagnaia starting a small way up the grid in comparison, there will be work to do for the Frenchman tomorrow. We saw in the first Misano race a few weeks ago, though, that Quartararo has the potential to overtake at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, and he will need to pull out a few of those moves again if he is to clinch his first MotoGP crown before Portimao.

Quartararo will start 15th, after his time good enough for third in Q1 was deleted for yellow flags, and will have both LCR Honda riders – Alex Marquez (13th) and Takaaki Nakagami (14th) – ahead of him on row five.

Maverick Vinales took seventh in Q1 for 17th on the grid for his first race in over a month, having missed Texas. The Spaniard will line up alongside Enea Bastianini, who crashed three times over the course of FP4 and Q1, and Joan Mir, who was helpless to save a front lock-up into turn 16 mid-way through Q1, his second crash of the qualifying hour. 

Brad Binder will start from 20th tomorrow, ahead of Andrea Dovbizioso and Michele Pirro, while Valentino Rossi will begin his 40-minute farewell tour of Misano from 23rd and last on the grid, since Aprilia wildcard Lorenzo Savadori is out after breaking his collarbone in FP3.