ESPARGARO TAKES POLE IN THE WET

Pol Espargaro take pole in the wet – Photo: LAT

In the first wet qualifying session of the MotoGP season, Pol Espargaro earnt himself a surprising pole position for the MotoGP European Grand Prix in Valencia, as many of the championship contenders struggled.

By DAN McCARTHY

Despite the drying and treacherous conditions, it was another tight MotoGP qualifying session with the top three riders within 0.1s.

In his home country, Spanish rider Pol Espargaro took his second pole position of the season. The factory KTM rider pipped championship contender Alex Rins on his Suzuki by 0.041s.

After taking his, maiden pole position in the previous race at Aragon, Takaaki Nakagami qualified a further 0.055s back and will start from the front row in third.

Johann Zarco made it four brands in the top four, qualifying his Avintia Ducati in fourth position. The flying Frenchman looked set for pole but was unable to complete it with a slow final sector on two occasions.

Championship leader and factory Suzuki rider Joan Mir rounded out the top five, despite qualifying less than 0.3s off pole.

After dominating practice 4 prior to qualifying Australian Jack Miller was unable to put a lap together on the drying track in Q2 and will start from sixth.

Factory Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro will start from seventh ahead of Tech3 KTM rider Miguel Oliveira.

The first Yamaha was championship contender Franco Morbidelli, the Italian will start from ninth ahead of Czech Grand Prix winner Brad Binder, who rounded out the top 10.

Shockingly Petronas Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo and Andrea Dovizioso qualified 11th and 12th fastest, the slowest riders in Q2.

Both of the factory Repsol Honda machines just missed out on a Q2 spot, qualifying in 13th and 14th.

In what has been a disastrous weekend for the factory Yamaha team, Maverick Vinales was the teams fastest qualifier in 15th. However, he will start tomorrow’s race from the pit lane as he was dealt a penalty for running an additional sixth engine this season.

This, therefore, promotes LCR rider Cal Crutchlow up into 15th ahead of Francesco Bagnaia.

Returning Valentino Rossi, despite missing Friday practice the veteran will start from 17th ahead of traditional wet weather expert Danilo Petrucci who found the going tough and ended up 18th.

Replacement Aprilia rider Lorenzo Savadori, Tito Rabat and Vinales round out the field.

The European Grand Prix begins at 12.00AM AEDT on Fox Sports 506 and Network 10.

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