Quartararo On Indonesia Pole As Márquez Falls Twice In Q1
Calum Gill 08:36 19/03/2022
Reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo scored pole position for the Mandalika track’s first Indonesian Grand Prix, while Marc Márquez crashed out twice in the first segment.
Six-time premier class world champion Márquez attempted three runs on three fresh soft rear tyres in a bid to maximise his chances of making Q2 - but the strength of the Ducatis and traffic forced him to push too hard and consigned him to 14th on the grid. An error-strewn push lap on his second soft rear ended with an inevitable-seeming fall at the Turn 13 left-hander, and he then got stuck behind LCR Honda stablemate Takaaki Nakagami on his final attempt, crashing out at the Turn 12 left-hander soon after passing Nakagami amid apparent desperation to make up time. Qualifying was delayed after a red flag for track cleanup in the preceding fourth practice, caused by Álex Rins’ Suzuki putting down oil on the surface before properly catching on fire.
Rins’ failed to realise the scope of of the problem right away and only disembarked in the Turn 13 run-off with his GSX-RR already properly in flames - while Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco appeared to be caught out by the oil on track in falling three corners prior. Quartararo took the initial lead in the pole shoot-out, four tenths up on his nearest rival Francesco Bagnaia, albeit a few thousandths short of the time Bagnaia had recorded to dominate Q1. Bagnaia was though on course to jump ahead after swapping to a new soft rear, before failing to get the Ducati stopped in time for Turn 10 and abandoning the effort.
Instead, Quartararo lowered his time to a 01:31.067, which left him well out of reach of his rivals - with only Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martín getting within a quarter of a second. Martín’s team-mate Zarco vaulted himself to the front row at the chequered flag while in the tow of Qatar GP winner Enea Bastianini (Gresini), with Brad Binder on the Red Bull KTM running behind the pair to claim fourth - and Bastianini himself picking up fifth, relegating Bagnaia to the back of the second row. Red Bull KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, fourth when the chequered flag flew, ended up shuffled down to seventh, followed by Rins and Ducati’s Jack Miller.
Two riders crashed during Q2 and they ended up 10th and 12th respectively, with Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) and Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha) split by Gresini rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, who’d made it out of Q1. Morbidelli, however, then received a three-place grid penalty for “positioning in front of riders staged to do a practice start” in FP3, meaning he will start 15th. The VR46 Ducatis of Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi will line up ahead of Márquez and Morbidelli. While Marini did his lap by himself, Bezzecchi spent the session glued to the back of Bagnaia alongside fellow rookie Di Giannantonio, but fell while trying to keep up late on.
Pol Espargaró ended up 0.001 seconds behind Honda factory team-mate Márquez in 16th, while Suzuki’s 2020 champion Joan Mir toiled to 18th, setting his fastest lap in the tow of the Bagnaia/Di Giannantonio/Bezzecchi trio before crashing out the very end. Andrea Dovizioso (RNF Yamaha) was sandwiched by Espargaró & Mir, whilst Álex Márquez (LCR Honda) will start 19th with Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) 20th. The Tech3 KTM duo of Raúl Fernández and Remy Gardner will follow, as RNF Yamaha's Darryn Binder and LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami bring up the tail of the field.
