QUARTARARO TAKES POLE IN JEREZ, MILLER ON FRONT ROW
Fabio Quartararo has taken his second consecutive pole position, and fourth straight at the Jerez Circuit in Spain.
As a result, the Frenchman continues his 100% pole position record at the venue and will be going for his third straight victory at the circuit after taking two wins at Jerez to start the 2020 season.
It will be a Yamaha 1-2 on the grid this evening after factory rider Quartararo pipped Petronas Yamaha SRT rider Franco Morbidelli by 0.057s.
After a difficult run of results Aussie Jack Miller was delighted to qualify on the front row of the grid on his factory Ducati.
The Queenslander did not look fast in practice, on the opening day he was buried down the timesheets but explained post-race that he was running race simulations throughout.
Therefore, it was a surprise to see Miller appear when push came to shove in qualifying, delivering when his back appeared to against the wall.
Miller utilised his teammate Francesco Bagnaia to great effect, using the Italian as a reference point to set the third fastest time, Bagnaia was fourth fastest, 0.1s off the pace of his teammate.
After a difficult start to the season, LCR rider Takaaki Nakagami was the fastest Honda and rounded out the top five.
It was a day to forget for the factory Honda squad, seven-time world champion Marc Marquez qualified in a lowly 14th, the lowest qualifying position of his career.
Marquez suffered a big crash in practice 3 and had to be taken to hospital, but he was cleared of any injuries and returned for quali.
His teammate Pol Espargaro suffered a sizeable crash at the same turn in practice 4, and in qualifying he was only able to qualify 13th.
The best of the factory Honda riders was wildcard entry Stefan Bradl who was just one place ahead in 12th.
Further forwards, former championship leader Johann Zarco qualified sixth ahead of factory Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales and Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro.
Again, the two Suzuki’s lacked one lap pace, Alex Rins qualified in ninth ahead of reigning MotoGP World Champion Joan Mir. Despite qualifying down the rear of the top 10, both riders were within 0.4s of pole position.
Brad Binder was 11th ahead of the trio of Hondas, Bradl, Pol Espargaro and Marquez.
Behind them were Enea Bastianini, Miguel Oliveira and Valentino Rossi who edged out his brother Luca Marini for 17th.
Danilo Petrucci, Alex Marquez, Iker Lecuona, Lorenzo Savadori while Tito Rabat who is subbing in for Jorge Martin rounded out the field.
