Quartararo storms to Jerez pole as Petronas Yamaha SRT take a Q2 1-2 with Morbidelli second, Marquez 3rd, Dovi 4th, Rossi 13th
FastNPower - Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) becomes the youngest ever MotoGP™ pole sitter at 20 years, 14 days after setting a new Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto lap record in qualifying, a 1:36.880 seeing the Frenchman beat teammate Franco Morbidelli by 0.082 as the new Petronas Yamaha SRT outfit lockout the front of the grid. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) had to settle for third after losing out by a slender 0.090 to Quartararo.
It was Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) who led the field onto their first flying laps and stalking the number 99 was teammate Marquez, and the reigning World Champion was able to take full advantage of Lorenzo’s draft to set a 1:36.970 straight out the blocks. A formidable first benchmark as Marquez then pulled straight in, seemingly attempting the two-stop strategy.
Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) went to second before Free Practice leader Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) emerged as Marquez’ closest challenger in the early stages of Q2 – the gap over three tenths though. But it wasn’t for long, Morbidelli was fourth after his first flyer but on his second attempt, the Italian went within a tenth of Marquez’ provisional pole time as 0.7 split the top 12 after the first set of runs, Quartararo sitting fifth at this point.
Marquez emerged on his second set of Michelin slicks before the rest and it was looking good for the Honda rider to move the goal posts further from his rivals, but he lost time in the last sector and it was as you were when the rest of the field ventured back out on fresh rubber. After a solid weekend so far, Lorenzo’s qualifying ended early after a crash at Turn 2 – rider ok. Not the birthday present the five-time World Champion was looking for.
Back on track and it wasn’t long before a certain 20-year-old was setting the timing screens alight, but would he be able to hold his advantage? Absolutely. Quartararo went P1 with a blistering 1:36.880 - the best lap of the weekend and a new lap record. It was far from over though, Championship leader Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) was on a very hot lap and was threatening Quartararo’s time, but the Italian lost time in the last sector and slotted into fourth. And what about Morbidelli? The Italian was pushing hard and propelled himself into P2, 0.082 off his teammate and 0.008 ahead of Marquez.
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