QUARTARARO INHERITS POLE IN PORTUGAL
Factory Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo was awarded pole position for the third round of the MotoGP season in Portugal after Franceso Bagnaia’s time was deleted as he did not slow sufficiently for yellow flags.
Bagnaia’s time obliterated the field but it would not count, his fastest time was deleted and his next best time was only good enough for 11th.
It was an incredibly dramatic 30 minutes of action with many twists and turns, the last one being the Bagnaia penalty.
On his way to pole position, Round 2 race winner, Frenchman Quartararo broke the lap record setting a 1m 38.862s.
Impressively on a bike famed for its long run pace, factory Suzuki rider Alex Rins claimed second position, only 0.089s off pole.
Championship leader Johann Zarco crashed early in the second and final qualifying segment but recovered well to qualify in third as the leading Ducati.
Less than two weeks after undergoing arm pump surgery, factory Ducati rider Miller qualified in fourth ahead of a much happier Franco Morbidelli who has two disastrous races in Qatar.
On his return to MotoGP action, after nine months away with an arm injury, six-time champion Marc Marquez was pleased to qualify sixth on the grid, just 0.259s off the pole time. The real test for Marquez is if he can sustain that over a race distance.
Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro qualified in seventh ahead of Luca Marini in just his third MotoGP race weekend.
Rounding out the top 12 qualifiers were a quartet of disappointed riders. Reigning champion Joan Mir was forced to navigate his way through Q1 and did so successfully, however with limited rubber left ninth is all he could do.
After winning the Portuguese Grand Prix in 2020, home hero Miguel Oliveira qualified down in 10th ahead of Bagnaia. Ironically it was Oliveira’s crash that resulted in the yellow flag and subsequent penalty for Bagnaia.
While his teammate took pole Vinales was livid on the other side of the garage. Vinales had three flying laps cancelled for abusing track limits. His remaining times were nowhere near strong enough to see him qualify anywhere near the front, as a result he will start 12th.
Alex Marquez looked set to progress but a late crash in Q1 saw him pipped by his brother and Mir.
Pol Espargaro was 14th ahead of KTM rider Brad Binder, Enea Bastianini, Valentino Rossi, Danilo Petrucci, Iker Lecuona and Lorenzo Savadori who rounded out the top 20.
Takaaki Nakagami did not take part in qualifying due to an arm injury, while Jorge Martin suffered a big crash in practice 3 and will not take part in the remainder of the weekend, his injuries are yet to be determined.
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