MotoGP: Dramatic Q2 ending sees Quartararo grab home race pole

Qualifying for round five of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship got underway in tricky conditions at Le Mans. 

By the end of FP4, the rain had started to fall and that meant that wet tyres were the order of the day for Q1. But the rain did not continue, so the track only got drier and faster, which meant the all-important top two positions would not be decided until the end of the session. 

Lorenzo Savadori had crashed towards the beginning of the session, but was able to get back out with a few minutes left and, by the end, was able to be in contention for the top two places, and finally topped the session to advance to Q2 for the first time in his career. The Italian was joined by his compatriot, Luca Marini, in advancing, after some smart track positioning by the #10 to hook in behind Francesco Bagnaia, a marker the rookie took maximum advantage of to go second. 

By the end of Q1 the track was mostly dry, and by the start of Q2 slicks seemed to be the way to go. The Petronas Yamaha riders, though, were the only riders to start the session on slicks, the rest were on wets but quick to make the change.

That Marc Marquez was top of the times when the chequered flag fell on Q2 was surprising or unsurprising depending on your view of his current condition, but that he actually qualified sixth highlights the relative insanity of the final 90 seconds or so of MotoGP qualifying for the French Grand Prix.

Maverick Vinales went fastest through the first split on his final lap, followed by Johann Zarco and Pol Espargaro, who was already looking set for his first front row start for HRC. but Espargaro crashed at turn seven, and his pole charge was over. 

Soon after, his hopes of starting from the front row were over, too, as Franco Morbidelli, Fabio Quartararo and Jack Miller all waded in with overall fastest and personal fastest splits. 

Vinales was able to complete his lap and take provisional pole from Marquez, before Zarco took second. Then Morbidelli bumped Zarco to third before Quartararo fired his #20 Yamaha to pole position ahead of Jack Miller, who used Quartararo’s tow to hop up to third and complete the front row behind the two factory Yamahas. 

It was complete madness at the end, MotoGP qualifying at its most dramatic. 

Morbidelli was unfortunate to be bumped back to the second row by Miller, but fourth is a good result for the Italian, who twisted his knee at the end of FP3 while practicing a bike swap. He qualified ahead of Zarco and Marquez, who completed the second row.

Before Marquez had been knocked off pole position, he was due to be joined on the front row by Takaaki Nakagami and Pol Espargaro, for a Honda front row lockout. Instead, while Marquez was able to hang onto the second row, Nakagami and Espargaro were dropped to row three, in seventh and eighth, respectively. The HRC duo will be joined by Valentino Rossi, who was able to find some speed and confidence at the end of the session to take ninth – his best qualifying since Qatar at the start of the year. 

Miguel Oliveira was the best KTM on the day, and completed the top 10. He will head up the third row tomorrow from the impressive Lorenzo Savadori, and Luca Marini who wa hte slowest of the 12 Q2 riders.

Aleix Espargaro topped Q1 on his penultimate lap. He had one more lap if he wanted it, but instead was celebrating on the run to turn one on his final tour, as though he had qualified for Q2. This, thanks to the late speed of Savadori and Marini, turned out not to be the case, and the Spaniard was dumped out of qualifying, in slightly embarrassing fashion, at the first hurdle. The #41 will be joined on row five by Joan Mir and Alex Rins, meaning the Suzuki duo have a lot of work to do on Sunday. Like Yamaha, the GSX-RR seems to work well in fully wet or fully dry conditions, but suffer more in the kind of half-wet-half-dry that we saw in Q1. 

On row six will be another disappointed championship contender as Francesco Bagnaia could only manage to qualify 16th. The #63 has been the only full-time Ducati rider, who is not a rookie, to have not entirely shone this weekend in the wet conditions, and it could prove costly tomorrow should the forecasts be believed. Certainly, it cost him today. 

The championship leader will be joined by his compatriot, Danilo Petrucci, on the sixth row, as well as Petrucci’s teammate, Iker Lecuona. 

Alex Marquez crashed late on in qualifying, and will have to come from 19th on the grid tomorrow in some grand fashion if he is to repeat his podium heroics of last October. The Spaniard will have Enea Bastianini – getting this weekend his first experience of wet weather MotoGP action – and Tito Rabat – standing in once more fro Jorge Martin at Pramac – alongside him on the seventh row; while Brad Binder was the biggest disappointment as he qualified 22nd and last.