The calendar takes the grid for the first time in Europe, for the 2022 Portuguese GP, on a weekend with numerous tricky conditions that would definetly mean a significative challenge for riders and teams, all weekend long.

As the first qualy session started, there was a considerable concern on the tyre selection, as the track showed notable wet zones, but there was no rain at the moment, first attempts saw Maverick Viñales on provisional Q2 spot with a wet compound used. Remy Gardner was the first rider with an incident on the session. Eventually the LCR Honda duo of Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami went to the top of the standings.

On the final attempts of the session, it was clear that Alex Marquez wasn’t going to miss the Q2, as the Spaniard looked clear from the rest, meanwhile a battle between, Nakagami, Martin and Bastianini looked intense for the last spot, eventually none of them made the cut, it was Luca Marini with a late big lap, who took the last spot om Q2

Q1 results:

13. Jorge Martín /// 14. Maverick Viñales ///15. Fabio Di Giannantonio
16. Andrea Dovizioso /// 17. Takaaki Nakagami /// 18. Enea Bastianini
19. Franco Morbidelli /// 20. Remy Gardner /// 21. Lorenzo Savadori
22. Darryn Binder /// 23. Álex Rins /// 24. Raúl Fernández
25. Francesco Bagnaia

It was time for the Q2 session that determines the next pole position of the 5th race of the season. Alex Marquez was keeping the mometum, as he went up at the first attempts of the session, followed by his brother Marc Marquez at 2nd.

Eventually, it became a free for all between Miller, Zarco, Quartararo, Marc Marquez and Mir. It looked that the Suzuki of Joan Mir would take his maiden MotoGP pole, but at the end, Johann Zarco took it away with a big last lap. Aleix Espargaro closes the front row, with also a big late lap

Q2 results:

1. Johann Zarco /// 2. Joan Mir /// 3. Aleix Espargaró
4. Jack Miller /// 5. Fabio Quartararo /// 6. Marco Bezzecchi
7. Álex Márquez /// 8. Luca Marini /// 9. Marc Márquez
10. Pol Espargaro /// 11. Miguel Oliveira /// 12. Brad Binder

7th MotoGP pole position for Johann Zarco, who keeps looking strong on qualy sessions, even on tricky conditions. Many teams looking even on track, with no clear dominant bike on track. Lots of variables that could happend on tomorrow’s race.