OLIVEIRA ON POLE AT HOME

Miguel Oliveira on pole at home – Photo: LAT

In his home event in Portugal, Miguel Oliveira claimed his maiden MotoGP pole position, as well as the first pole for the Tech3 KTM squad.

By DAN McCARTHY

By setting a blistering 1m 38.892s time around the undulating Portimao circuit, Oliveira also became the first Portuguese rider to ever take pole position in the premier class.

It was yet another gripping and nail-biting MotoGP qualifying session, in which Oliveira became the seventh different pole-sitter of the season after snatching top spot in the dying seconds.

Last weekend’s race winner Franco Morbidelli missed out by just 0.044s and will start this evening’s race from second on his Petronas Yamaha.

The Italian however will be happy to start from p2 after he snuck through to Q2 by the skin of his teeth.

Australian Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati), who was locked in an epic last-lap duel with Morbidelli seven days ago, rounds out the front row after qualifying in third. Just 0.146s off Oliveira’s time.

Cal Crutchlow in his last full-time round before retiring qualified in fourth position, and in doing so made it four manufacturers in the top four on his LCR Honda.

Like Morbidelli, Crutchlow had to negotiate his way through the opening 15-minute qualifying session.

The shock of the session was the newly crowned MotoGP champion Joan Mir, just six days after taking his maiden premier-class title the Suzuki rider qualified a lowly 20th position on the grid, his joint-worst career qualifying position.

Further up the order was his long-time title rival Fabio Quartararo who qualified in fifth ahead of factory Honda test rider Stefan Bradl, the German continues to show impressive speed on the 2020 machine in Portugal.

After suffering an engine failure in the final practice session, Johann Zarco on his spare Ducati managed to qualify in seventh ahead of Maverick Vinales and Pol Espargaro.

From fifth to ninth Quartararo and Espargaro were separated in time by just 0.085s.

Like his factory Suzuki teammate Mir, Alex Rins struggled in qualifying and will start this evening’s race from 10th on the grid ahead of Takaaki Nakagami and Andrea Dovizioso in his last weekend with the factory Ducati team.

Brad Binder just missed out on a Q2 spot qualifying in 13th ahead of Aleix Espargaro, Francesco Bagnaia, Alex Marquez and Valentino Rossi.

Danilo Petrucci will start from 18th ahead of Aprilia replacement rider Lorenzo Savadori, Mir, Tito Rabat and Mika Kallio who rounds out the field.

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