After a strong domain of the season by Maverick Viñales, today it’s been Marc Márquez who has taken Pole in his strongest venue. Honda driver will be accompained on the first row by Viñales and Rossi.
Q1 started without any unusual driver (apart from Jorge Lorenzo) taking part in it. On the first attempt, Aleix Espargaró crashed his Aprilia on the first corner. When everyone had completed a lap, Jack Miller was leading with a 2:04.438, with Lorenzo in second place. The younger Espargaró brother, Pol, had also a crash.
On the second and last attempt, no one could improve his time (Loris Baz was about to imrpove to second, but he almost had a crash), and Miller and Lorenzo advanced through Q2.
In Q2, Cal Crutchlow ran wide in a corner and lost the opportunity to set a time. Maverick Viñales also lost his opportunity after almost colliding with his teammate Valentino Rossi. After the first attempt, Marc Márquez was leading followed by Johann Zarco. Andrea Iannone and Miller had crashes. On his second lap, Viñales could improve to second and get closer to Márquez.
On the last minutes of the session, Crutchlow crashed and Viñales improved his time, being only 0.083 seconds behind Márquez. Zarco improved to third place. Viñales moved to first on his last lap, but Márquez improved again. Rossi also improved and got to qualify third.
With that, Márquez takes Pole position, extends his domain in this track and breaks the hegemony that Viñales had been showing this year. Viñales will start second with Rossi in third place.
