MOTO GP – Austrian GP – Qualifying

Second part of the Doubleheader at the Red Bull Ring. A weekend that already had shaken up with the suspension of Yamaha rider Maverick Viñales after a strong confrontarion with the team after the results on the Styrian GP.

First qualy session saw quite some names that could make it through the next session. Names like Jorge Martin, Alex Marquez, Alex Rins and Miguel Oliveira as strong contenders. First laps saw constant change of position of these 4 riders in front, with the addition of Enea Bastianini and Iker Lecuona getting on the mix.

A the last attempts, it was clear that Jorge Martin was looking as the strongest contender at the first qualy session, with dominant lap times compared to the rest of the group. The second spot was quite contested between Rins, Alex Marquez and Oliveira, with the Portuguese riders holding the second spot after a good lap on his last attempts.

Q1 Results:

13. Álex Rins /// 14. Álex Márquez /// 15. Enea Bastianini
16. Iker Lecuona /// 17. Luca Marini ///18. Valentino Rossi
19. Danilo Petrucci /// 20. Cal Crutchlow

Second qualy session went underway, riders hit the track as they were looking for the best start position. First minutes were variant on the front row spots, as Quartararo, Mir, Aleix Espargaro Oliveira and the Ducatis of Miller, Bagnaia, Zarco and Martin were on the hunt. Zarco and Miller locked some good lap times, but Quartararo demolished the competition by opening the gap as provisional pole sitter.

Second run of the session and it didn’t seem like someone could take pole from the Frenchman on the Yamaha. As Marquez, Miller and Bagnaia all tried but failed to capitalize on their last 2 sectors. with almost everyone done on the session, it looked like Quartararo would get the pole position, but then a storming Jorge Martin was hitting red sectors alongside Johan Zarco, with the Spaniard crossing the line by +.034 ahead of Quartararo’s time and claiming a back to back pole position.

Q2 results:

1. Jorge Martín ///2. Fabio Quartararo /// 3. Francesco Bagnaia
4. Johann Zarco /// 5. Marc Márquez ///6. Jack Miller
7. Joan Mir /// 8. Aleix Espagaro /// 9. Miguel Oliveira
10. Brad Binder /// 11. Pol Espagaro ///12. Takaaki Nakagami

Jorge Martin had to lead both Q1 and Q2 to gain his another pole position to the record books. A good result to the Ducati team could be an important momentum gain on both riders and Constructors championship against Quartararo and the Yamaha bikes.