The return of MotoGP to Phillip Island was marked by a very tight qualifying, with the first three rows enclosed in the space of just four tenths and the battle for the front row that was played on the edge of thousandths. The pole position was signed by Jorge Martin, who with his 1’27 “767 set the new record of the Australian track.
For the driver of the Prima Pramac Racing this is the seventh pole of his career in the premier class, the third of the season. If the discussion extends to Ducati, however, the data is truly impressive: for the Borgo Panigale manufacturer this is the 14th start at the pole of the season in 17 qualifying races.
Net of the pole of the Madrid driver, the focus was obviously on the candidates for the title and the best in this sense was Pecco Bagnaia, who will field his Ducati in third position tomorrow, therefore in the front row.
The ducatista had closed in front of everyone after the first run, but in the second he was unable to be as efficient as his teammate, stopping at 186 thousandths of a second. Furthermore, Marc Marquez slipped in front of him, who had chosen the Piedmontese’s “hook” and used it to snatch the second position from him with his Honda, giving continuity to his moment of positive form.
Not bad for the Piedmontese who, despite in the queue of his Desmosedici GP there was a traffic worthy of the Milan ring road at rush hour and not only the eight-time world champion, he managed to get behind both Aleix Espargaro and Fabio Quartararo , which will be in the second row, respectively in fourth and fifth position.
At Aprilia they tried to play a team game, putting the Granollers rider in a position to take advantage of the wake of his teammate Maverick Vinales at the exit from the last corner, who sacrificed himself by finishing only 12th. It’s just a shame that a crash of his RS-GP cost him something in T4, because the front row escaped him by only 4 thousandths.
Instead, the world leader had no one to “play” with, since he was the only Yamaha rider to enter Q2, so he tried as always to do his own thing. For him, too, the front row really escaped by a whisker, as he was just 20 thousandths slower than Bagnaia. What worries him, if anything, must be the lineup of Ducati that he will have to deal with tomorrow at the start.
To complete the second row there is in fact that of Johann Zarco, who passed from Q1 with the best time, while in the third row there are only Desmosedici GP, with the Mooney VR46 tandem interspersed with Jack Miller’s Red, only eighth on the track of house, behind Luca Marini. Too bad for Marco Bezzecchi, who up to T3 had set times from the front row, but then lost ground to T4, finding himself ninth to just over four tenths.
Tenth time for Alex Rins’ Suzuki, who like Zarco qualified from Q1, managing to bring at least one GSX-RR into the first four rows. Said of Vinales’ 12th time, Alex Marquez is ahead of him, who was unable to take advantage of the direct access to Q2 that he had earned this morning with his Honda LCR.
The first of the excluded at the end of Q1 was Enea Bastianini, but the Gresini Racing rider will certainly have to complain, because he was out by 38 thousandths, but in T3 he found Miguel Oliveira’s KTM which was proceeding rather slowly in the trajectory.
What is certain is that for “Bestia” he looks like a big blow for his world championship aspirations, given that he will be the furthest back on the grid among all the title candidates. The Portuguese of KTM, on the other hand, in addition to passing from the victory in Buriram to 21st place on the grid, also ended up under investigation for what happened.
Sharing the fifth row with Bastianini will be Pol Espargaro and Joan Mir, returning to the saddle of Suzuki after the right ankle injury, who are also among the disappointed in today’s Q1. Until a few seconds from the end they were the two main candidates to take off the pass for Q2, but then they saw each other parade with time expired and therefore they will line up respectively 14th and 15th.
It was a very disappointing qualifying for the KTMs. Net of Oliveira’s mistake, you have to go down to 16th place to find the best of the RC16s, which is that of Brad Binder. 20th place on the grid instead for the second Ducati of Gresini Racing, the one entrusted to Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Late night for Franco Morbidelli: the Yamaha rider finds himself 23rd on the grid, with only the Japanese Tetsuta Nagashima behind him, called to replace the injured Takaaki Nakagami on the LCR Team Honda, and only in his third MotoGP race in everything.
What weighs more, however, is the blow taken by the other two M1s of Cal Crutchlow and Darryn Binder. It is true that the two RNF Racing drivers are 17th and 18th, but it is equally true that the British trimmed half a second to Morbidelli, who also took four tenths from the South African.
Q2 standings
Q1 standings
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