Luca Marini stormed to his second pole of the season in Qatar MotoGP qualifying. With a new course record of 1:51.762 minutes, the VR46 Ducati rider narrowly beat his two brand colleagues Fabio Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez from the Gresini team.
World Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and his challenger Jorge Martin (Pramac-Ducati) were fourth and fifth in row two.
The first record times are already in Q1
Sepang winner Enea Bastianini (Ducati) had to compete in Q1. Like several other drivers, he was unlucky with late yellow flags on Friday and therefore missed out on direct entry into Q2. Jack Miller (KTM), Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati) and the Yamaha duo also fought with him to advance.
In the end the decision was extremely close. Four drivers fell short of the old course record. But only Johann Zarco (Pramac-Ducati) and Alex Marquez made it into the second qualifying session.
Marco Bezzecchi (VR46-Ducati) and Quartararo narrowly failed in third and fourth place, with the top four only separated by 0.142 seconds. Bastianini, temporarily held up by Iker Lecuona (LCR-Honda), did not get past fifth place. Miller also got stuck in sixth place in Q1.
Things got faster again in Q2. On the first flying lap, two drivers, Di Giannantonio and Marini, broke Zarco’s young course record. But the eyes were primarily focused on the two World Cup rivals.
Ducati customer pilots prevail
Martin was in third place after the first run. Bagnaia was in sixth place. The latter improved again in the final run, but had to admit defeat to three Ducati customer riders, all of whom clocked under 1:52 minutes.
Marini ultimately secured the course record and the pole, just 67 thousandths ahead of Di Giannantonio. Alex Marquez was also just 0.136 seconds short of pole time. Bagnaia came fourth and is right next to Martin and his teammate Zarco in fifth and sixth place.
Marc Marquez (Honda), who clung to Bagnaia’s rear wheel in his two Q2 runs, finished qualifying in seventh place and shares the third row with the two Aprilia drivers Maverick Vinales and Raul Fernandez.
Tenth place also went to Aleix Espargaro on an Aprilia. Brad Binder couldn’t get past eleventh place on his KTM. Augusto Fernandez (Tech-3-GasGas) came twelfth.
In row five are Bezzecchi, Quartararo and Bastianini. Miller leads the sixth row ahead of Miguel Oliveira (RNF-Aprilia) and Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha). Pol Espargaro (Tech-3-GasGas) is in 19th place on the grid. The Honda trio Joan Mir, Iker Lecuona and Takaaki Nakagami complete the grid.