QUARTARARO TAKES DOMINANT ITALIAN GP POLE

Fabio Quartararo smashed the existing MotoGP qualifying lap record at Mugello to take pole position for this evening’s Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

The French factory Yamaha rider set a 1m 45.187s lap time to take pole by well over 0.2s from his closest championship rival Francesco Bagnaia.

Bagnaia’s factory Ducati teammate, Aussie Jack Miller was only 0.171s behind his teammate, but this was only good for fifth position.

The pole for Quartararo was his fourth in succession, but the Frenchman described the Mugello lap as the best lap of his career.

Bagnaia will start in the middle of the front row, with his brand mate and former championship leader Johann Zarco starting from third. Both Bagnaia and Zarco left their best attempts until the final lap, jumping up the leaderboard after the time had elapsed.

Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro looked set for his first front-row since 2015, however was demoted to fourth in the dying seconds by the Ducatis. Although disappointed not to be on the front row, fourth was still impressive, as he had to make his way through Q1.

Miller was fifth ahead of the pair of factory KTM riders Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira. With just a couple of minutes to go Binder sat second, however he was pushed back to sixth by the end, just ahead of Oliveira.

The pair of Suzukis were next, Alex Rins pipping reigning champion Joan Mir by 0.08s, while satellite Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli rounded out the top 10.

The legendary Repsol Hondas rounded out the Q1 positions, Marc Marquez was 11th ahead of Pol Espargaro.

The top 11 were separated by less than a second, however the drama commenced in Q1 as Marquez had to make his way through the first segment.

Throughout the 15-minute session, Marquez remained glued to the rear of factory Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales’ bike. This infuriated ‘Top Gun’ who failed to progress into the second session.

Vinales looked as though he was going to knock out Aleix Espargaro, but a mistake in the final turn saw the Aprilia rider scrape through.

Although it was a tough day for Vinales, it was a worse day for his former teammate Valentino Rossi.

The seven-time premier class champion made several mistakes and had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. This meant he only had one final lap to set a competitive time.

The lap was only good enough for 19th, the 1m 46.770s was over 1.5s slower than the man who replaced him in the factory squad Quartararo.

Further forward, a livid Vinales was the third fastest in the session, he will have to start from 13th alongside Enea Bastianini and Takaaki Nakagami.

Replacement rider Michelle Pirro subbing in for the injured Jorge Martin was 16th ahead of Luca Marini and defending Italian Grand Prix winner Danilo Petrucci.

Rossi, Iker Lecuona, Lorenzo Savadori and Alex Marquez round out the 22-rider field, the race commences tonight at 10pm AEST.

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