MotoGP: Martin takes second straight pole position in Austria

The MotoGP World Championship returned to the Red Bull Ring one week on from the Styrian Grand Prix, this time for the Austrian Grand Prix. Johann Zarco finished free practice on top, with a time he set at the end of FP1 on Friday morning.

Q1 was dominated, relatively speaking, by Jorge Martin, who led it almost from start to finish. It was not much of a surprise to see last week’s pole sitter and race winner advance to Q2, but for Miguel Oliveira – still suffering from the injured wrist from FP1 last weekend – it was perhaps above expectations to make it into the top 12 of qualifying. 

Fabio Quartararo looked for all the world to have secured pole position for tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix with a devastating second lap of his first run in Q2. The Frenchman was over 0.7 seconds ahead of third place, and nearly 0.4 seconds clear of second. 

However, Jorge Martin had different plans. Having come through Q1 and seemingly secured a front row start with his performance in the first run of Q2, the Spaniard went on to repeat the performance of last weekend, taking pole position with another new lap record of 1’22.643. It is hard to not be surprised by a rookie taking pole position, but Martin’s history in Grand Prix racing, and his performance last weekend mean this result is- not expected, but certainly not a shock. A reminder, at this point, that this is Martin’s seventh meeting on a MotoGP bike. 

Fabio Quartararo’s lap was good enough for second, which at least means he starts ahead of all his championship rivals. The highest placed of those is Francesco Bagnaia, who completes tomorrow’s front row; while Quartararo’s closest championship rival, Johann Zarco, will start fourth. 

Joining Zarco on row two will be Marc Marquez and Jack Miller in fifth and sixth, respectively; while Joan Mir could do no better than seventh. Mir will be joined on row three by Aleix Espargaro and Brad Binder; while Pol Espargaro will start 10th, ahead of Miguel Oliveira and Takaaki Nakagami.

Alex Rins was, as last week, the fastest rider to miss out on Q2, and he will have a big job on tomorrow to recover once more from 13th on the grid. The Spaniard will be joined by compatriot Alex Marquez, and rookie Enea Bastianini on row five tomorrow; while Iker Lecuona is joined by Luca Marini and Valentino Rossi on the sixth row, 18th being Rossi’s worst qualifying since Mugello. The final row will see Danilo Petrucci joined by Cal Crutchlow in 19th and 20th, respectively. A reduced grid this week, of course, with Maverick Vinales having been suspended by Yamaha, and Lorenzo Savadori suffering the broken ankle sustained in last week’s Styrian Grand Prix.