Martín Beats Factory Ducatis To Valencia Pole
Calum Gill 14:33 13/11/2021
Pramac’s Jorge Martín upstaged the works Ducatis - both of which crashed - to take the fourth pole of his MotoGP rookie season at the Valencia finale.
Martín and Jack Miller had been equal first early in Q2 having both set 01:30.325 laps. But then Francesco Bagnaia blew the rest away with consecutive new benchmark laps of 01:30.118 and 01:30.000 as he chased his sixth straight pole. He kept pushing for a third flying lap only to crash and bring out yellow flags that stymied most others’ laps. Martín appears to have got through that sector before the yellows came out, and he produced a 01:29.936 to halt Bagnaia’s streak. Miller also crashed on his final lap while looking set to improve.
But despite their falls, Bagnaia and Miller hold on to second and third on an all-Ducati front row. Suzuki had another strong qualifying session - 2020 champion Joan Mir fourth and team-mate Álex Rins coming through from Q1 to sixth, split by Martin’s team-mate Johann Zarco. Seventh-placed Brad Binder also progressed from Q1. He wasn’t just the only KTM rider in Q2, but the only one of its work pair anywhere near making it out of Q1.
Miguel Oliveira was slowest of all in qualifying, six tenths of a second away from Binder in Q1. The Tech3 KTMs of Iker Lecuona and Danilo Petrucci start 15th and 16th for the pair’s MotoGP farewells. Newly-crowned champion Fabio Quartararo struggled again, down in eighth, three places ahead of Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli. Valentino Rossi was straight into Q2 on practice pace for his final MotoGP start and went on to qualify 10th. Takaaki Nakagami was best of the reduced Honda contingent in ninth for LCR.
After his superb Portimao performance last week, Nakagami’s team-mate Álex Márquez came back down to earth in miserable fashion as a Turn 2 crash in Q1 left him second-slowest. Andrea Dovizioso secured the best qualifying result of his MotoGP comeback so far, putting the Petronas SRT Yamaha 13th on the grid and missing Q2 by just half a tenth. There were no Repsol Hondas running in qualifying following Pol Espargaró’s vicious morning crash. It is not yet clear if he will be fit to race tomorrow.
Honda has elected not to replace Marc Márquez - absent for a second straight race as vision problems have followed his recent concussion - for the finale so Espargaró was due to represent the works team alone. Despite Aleix Espargaró’s Friday rage, he did make it into Q2 for Aprilia via his Saturday morning pace but was slowest in the pole shootout.
