MotoGP: Fifth straight pole for Bagnaia, maiden front row for Mir

The MotoGP World Championship enters its penultimate round this weekend, as it visits the Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal for the second time in 2021, for the Grand Prix of the Algarve. Francesco Bagnaia was fastest in free practice, ahead of Fabio Quartararo by just 0.001 seconds after FP3.

After both impressing in FP4, Johann Zarco and Iker Lecuona were favourites to go through from Q1 to Q2; and, despite pressure from the likes of Enea Bastianini and Aleix Espargaro, it was indeed the Franco-Spanish pairing who advanced into the top 12. 

Going into Q2, it was expected that the battle for pole would be an exclusive one between Francesco Bagnaia and newly crowned World Champion Fabio Quartararo. However, Joan Mir and Jack Miller had different plans, and after the first runs the Australian was on provisional pole from the Spaniard, while a cancelled lap for yellow flags brought out by Luca Marini had Quartararo down in seventh after half of the session. 

Bagnaia responded on the first flying lap of his second run, taking provisional pole away from his teammate, whose own first flyer with the second tyre saw him lap over six seconds off the pace. 

Bagnaia improved once again on his final flying lap, and Miller could not respond, perhaps because he did not have enough temperature in his tyres after the slow first lap on that second tyre. Meanwhile, Joan Mir had his final lap baulked by Alex Marquez, who in fairness had little choice but to pass Mir into the first corner having slipstreamed the #36 Suzuki down the pit straight; and Fabio Quartararo simply missed speed on his second run.

That all meant that Francesco Bagnaia sealed his fifth consecutive pole position, which is quite an impressive statistic, even with two of those five being in Misano. Bagnaia will also be encouraged by his race pace, and by the fact that Quartararo is not alongside him on the front row, that a third race win of the season will be a possibility tomorrow. 

While Bagnaia has been on pole in each of the last five races, Jack Miller has been second to him in four of those five now, which must be grating slightly on the laid back Aussie, especially having come so close to taking pole for himself in Emilia Romagna and now Portimao, too. But Miller should be content with his starting position, as it will give him the chance to either hold up the seemingly faster Bagnaia by getting ahead of him early on, or to follow his teammate in the hopes of being able to escape the riders he might be fighting towards the end for a podium spot. 

Unfortunately for Miller, one of those riders is also alongside him: Joan Mir. Mir was fuming with Marquez, to the extent that he could not express any positivity about claiming what is his first MotoGP front row, which is still a shocking statistic even if you are fully aware of it. Mir’s race pace looks good, and encouragement will come from his ability to stay with Bagnaia at the end of the Portuguese Grand Prix back in April, when the Italian finished second, ahead of Mir in third. 

Jorge Martin narrowly missed out on a front row, which would suggest he has defeated the fear he had of the Portimao circuit coming into this weekend. It was a reasonable fear to have, after the severity of the injuries he sustained in Portugal back in April, which makes his Saturday performance all the more impressive. 

Joining Martin on the second row tomorrow will be his teammate Johann Zarco, who showed strong pace in FP4 and fought for the podium in Portimao back in April, and Pol Espargaro, fresh off the back of his first HRC podium in Misano. 

Fabio Quartararo’s first race as a World Champion will start from seventh on the grid. Several times this season, Quartararo has shown his ability to pass, even on the slowest bike on the grid. He will need to employ that ability again tomorrow if he is to get towards the front before the likes of Bagnaia and Mir are already cleared off. 

On the back of the third row tomorrow will be Franco Morbidelli, meaning that eighth-placed Alex Marquez is in a factory Yamaha sandwich on row three; while Iker Lecuona heads up row four from Alex Rins and Luca Marini.

Enea Bastianini was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2. It has been a great debut campaign in MotoGP from the #23, but if there is one weak point in his game, it is certainly ime attacks on a Saturday afternoon. This is not new, of course, as the reigning Moto2 World Champion is without a pole position since Barcelona 2018, when he topped Moto3 qualifying. 

Aleix Espargaro and Danilo Petrucci will join Bastianini on row five tomorrow, Espargaro still struggling to re-discover the form of earlier in the year that seemed to peak with his Silverstone podium.

Valentino Rossi will head up row six in his penultimate race as a MotoGP rider. While nothing special, it is certainly a step up from where the #46 was on Friday, and he will be alongside home favourite Miguel Oliveira, and ex-teammate Maverick Vinales on the grid tomorrow. 

Brad Binder was ninth-fastest in Q1. The struggles of both Binder and Oliveira really highlight the level Lecuona is operating at on the Tech3 RC16, and the degree of talent the Grand Prix paddock is losing – and that the WorldSBK grid is gaining – in 2022. Alongside Binder on the seventh row tomorrow will be Marc Marquez’ replacement, Stefan Bradl, and Andrea Dovizioso, who isn’t getting on well with the Yamaha, and doesn’t like Portimao. 

Takaaki Nakagami had been quite strong on Friday, but was unable to repeat that on Saturday. A crash ended his Q1 early and he will start last.