Total Ducati dominance in MotoGP qualifying for the 2022 USA Grand Prix. Five Ducati riders claimed the top five grid spots at the Circuit of The Americas in Texas! Jorge Martin raced to his second pole position of the year with a time of 2:02.039 minutes. That also meant a new lap record.
The Pramac rider kept factory duo Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia in check. “After my fall in the third free practice session, I was in 17th place,” says Martin, referring to his starting position in Q1. “I couldn’t count on getting on pole today.”
“This pole means a lot to me. I like the track very much. Now it’s time to concentrate fully on the race, because it won’t be easy with all the Ducatis in front.” Martin once again underlined his qualifying qualities, because he drove to the front row in all four races of the season.
Miller was beaten by just three thousandths of a second. Both Miller and Bagnaia claimed front row seats for the first time this year. Johann Zarco (Pramac) and Enea Bastianini (Gresini) completed the Ducati dominance in fourth and fifth place.
The first pursuer was world champion Fabio Quartararo, who experienced a turbulent qualifying session. In his first attempt, the Yamaha rider crashed in turn 19 with very good intermediate times. When turning into the left-hand corner, his front wheel collapsed over a bump.
A marshal quickly brought Quartararo back to the pits and he tried again with the second M1. This time it worked and Quartararo improved to sixth on the grid. He was almost six tenths of a second behind Martin.
Suzuki duo Alex Rins and Joan Mir finished seventh and eighth respectively. This third row was completed by Austin record winner Marc Marquez. The Honda driver was exactly 0.999 seconds behind on pole.
And behind them, Takaaki Nakagami (LCR-Honda), Luca Marini (VR46-Ducati) and Pol Espargaro (Honda) qualified on row four. Aside from Quartararo, Bastianini also had a harmless slip at Turn 3 early in Q2. The Italian was able to continue easily.
Q1: End of work for Aprilia and KTM
In Q1, Martin set the best time of 2:02.487 minutes. The Ducati rider was two tenths of a second quicker than Rins. The two Spaniards thus moved into Q2. Look through the whole action in the ticker!.
Qualifying ended in the gravel trap for the championship leader. In his second attempt, Aleix Espargaro crashed at turn 8. The marshals pushed the Aprilia behind the barriers and the Argentine winner was annoyed at his mistake.
Finally, Aleix Espargaro finished third in Q1. His teammate Maverick Vinales followed in fourth. Thus, the two Aprilia drivers will attack from grid positions 13 and 14 from the fifth row.
For KTM it was also over in the first section. Brad Binder was just under a second behind Martin’s Q1 best time. The South African ended up in seventh place (17th on the grid). His teammate Miguel Oliveira was a second and a half behind and will start 20th tomorrow.
Two rookies also fell in Q1. Darryn Binder (RNF-Yamaha) had his third crash this weekend. Moto2 World Champion Remy Gardner (Tech-3-KTM) also went down. Both were unharmed.
The 20-lap MotoGP race gets underway at 20:00 CEST on Sunday.