Enea Bastianini will start a race from pole for the first time in his MotoGP career at the Austrian Grand Prix of the 2022 Motorcycle World Championship. In qualifying on Saturday at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, the rain that had been announced the day before didn’t materialize. The route, now 4.348 kilometers long for the motorcycles, was completely dry.
Bastianini set a lap time of 1:28.772 minutes in the second Q2 attempt. In doing so, he had secured his own pole and the second for the Gresini team (after Fabio Di Giannantonio at Mugello). Compared to last year’s pole time in Spielberg, when the chicane did not yet exist, Bastianini’s pole time is six seconds slower.
Second fastest was Ducati factory pilot Francesco Bagnaia. He was in the FT4 shortly before qualifying with the aero update on the hump behind the seat for the first time, with which Bastianini has been driving since Silverstone.
“Pecco” Bagnaia crashed right in FT4 in the penultimate corner of the track (Turn 9), but still finished the final practice session in P3. However, Bastianini had already been the fastest in this session.
Third fastest in qualifying behind pole setter Bastianini and behind Bagnaia, beaten by just 0.024 seconds, was his Ducati teammate Jack Miller. This means that Ducati riders have conquered the entire front row for Sunday.
What’s more: Pramac rider Jorge Martin is followed directly on P4 by another rider on one of the Desomsedici bikes from Bologna. The fastest non-Ducati rider was once again Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha). He will start on Sunday in fifth place from the middle of the second row. It is precisely this second row that Johann Zarco completes on the second Pramac-Ducati.
Maverick Vinales (Aprilia), Joan Mir (Suzuki) and Vinales’ teammate Aleix Espargaro, who made his way into Q2 via the detour Q1, form the third row of the grid. The fourth row is occupied by Gresini rider Di Giannantonio, who, like Espargaro, ran in Q1, as well as Alex Rins (Suzuki) and Brad Binder, the fastest KTM rider at the brand’s home round from Austria.
Q1: Espargaro & Di Giannantonio continue – Bezzecchi & Márquez crash
In the first qualifying segment (Q1), Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) with the best time and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini-Ducati), as already mentioned, made it into Q2 afterwards. On the other hand, Luca Marini (VR46-Ducati), third fastest, failed to progress by 0.036 seconds.
Meanwhile, Marini’s VR46 teammate Marco Bezzecchi and also Alex Márquez (LCR-Honda) crashed in the chicane. At the exit of the new section of the track, the front wheel of both slipped away at almost the same time. There was no contact between the two bikes. Bezzecchi then managed no more than 21st place on the grid. The young Márquez even starts on Sunday as 25th and thus last.
Stefan Bradl, who continues to represent Marc Márquez in the Honda factory team, took 18th on the grid, while Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro also failed to advance in Q1 and will start from P15 on Sunday. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR-Honda), who finished just one position ahead of Espargaro in Q1, also clearly missed making it into Q2.
Andrea Dovizioso (RNF-Yamaha) had a crash in final practice (FT4) on the penultimate race weekend of his MotoGP career. In qualifying, “Dovi” finished tenth in Q1. For him that means starting position 20 in the field of 25 on Sunday.
The 2022 Austrian Grand Prix in the MotoGP premier class will start on Sunday at the usual time at 2:00 p.m.