Bagnaia Beats Quartararo To Jerez Pole
Calum Gill 14:27 30/04/2022
Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia snapped Fabio Quartararo’s Jerez pole streak in qualifying for the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.
Quartararo had been on pole in all four of his previous premier-class appearances at Jerez, but was powerless to resist Bagnaia’s 1:36.170, which now stands as the new MotoGP lap record at the venue. Having combined to lock out the top two spots in both third and fourth practice, 2021 title rivals Quartararo and Bagnaia established themselves as class of the field right away in Q2, lapping 0.073 seconds apart and around four tenths quicker than anyone else. Yet Bagnaia’s very first flyer after a mid-session pitstop elevated him to over six tenths clear of Quartararo, and the Frenchman could only whittle down the gap to 0.453 seconds. It was still plenty good enough for him to finish second, however, with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaró in third another three tenths down on Quartararo.
Jack Miller tucked in behind Ducati team-mate Bagnaia on the Italian’s record lap to secure fourth on the grid, while Marc Márquez followed first Bagnaia and then Quartararo to bag fifth place. The two Ducati riders who advanced from Q1, Johann Zarco (Pramac) and Marco Bezzecchi (VR46), wound up sixth and eighth, split by LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami. Bezzecchi had a minor crash in Q1 shortly after setting his best time. For Joan Mir (Suzuki), Jorge Martín (Pramac) and Enea Bastianini (Gresini), the crashes came in Q2, and the trio completed the top 11 - but all ended up ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Viñales, the last of those in Q2.
Pol Espargaró came up 0.003 seconds short of making the pole shoot-out, the Repsol Honda man outpaced by Bezzecchi by the smallest of margins before being relegated down to third in Q1 by a last-gasp Zarco improvement. Espargaró will share row five with Spanish compatriot Álex Rins (Suzuki), who is currently level on points with Quartararo at the top of the standings, and the lead KTM of Brad Binder, who had a quicker laptime deleted for track limits but would’ve stayed in the same position anyway.
Quartararo’s team-mate Franco Morbidelli was only 16th, followed by a pair of rookies split by 0.007 seconds - Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini) and Remy Gardner (Tech3 KTM), with Gardner crashing at Turn 1 late in the session. Miguel Oliveira was third and last of the participating KTMs, with Tech3’s Raúl Fernández missing out through injury. Oliveira had his Q1 compromised by a mechanical failure denying him one of two planned runs, and will start 21st, one place ahead of LCR Honda’s Álex Márquez. Aprilia tester Lorenzo Savadori is sandwiched by the two RNF Yamaha bikes, behind Andrea Dovizioso and ahead of Darryn Binder.
