It was a feisty pole battle in the 2018 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix with Ducati taking 1-3 as Jorger Lorenzo beat future teammate Honda’s Marc Marquez by a mere 0.066s to take pole, while Andrea Dovizioso finished third.
Q1:
The first part in the Catalan GP qualifying saw the two Honda-powered riders making it through to the second session after factory rider Marc Marquez led the way from satellite LCR outfit’s Takaaki Nakagami sneaking in for his first-ever Q2.
The Spaniard lapped the circuit at 1m39.217s with the Japanese going second with a 1m39.663s laptime. Nakagami bumped Pramac Racing Ducati’s Jack Miller (1m39.732s), who had been in second for major part of the session but had to be content with third to start 13th in Sunday’s race.
After looking much quicker in all the practice sessions so far, Tech 3 Yamaha’s Hafizh Syahrin (1m39.879s) was 14th leading a close pack of Suzuki’s Alex Rins (1m39.918s), Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro (1m40.010s), KTM’s Bradley Smith (1m40.019s) and Marc VDS Honda’s Franco Morbidelli (1m40.058s) – the five riders separated by a mere 0.179s
In 19th was KTM’s Pol Espargaro (1m40.178s) after he was beaten by teammate Smith with Aprilia’s Scott Redding (1m40.300s) in 20th, leading the first Angel Nieto Ducati of Karel Abraham (1m40.449s) after his teammate Alvaro Bautista (1m40.524s) crashed in the dying moments of the session.
In 19th was KTM’s Pol Espargaro (1m40.178s) after he was beaten by teammate Smith with Aprilia’s Scott Redding (1m40.300s) in 20th, leading the first Angel Nieto Ducati of Karel Abraham (1m40.449s) after his teammate Alvaro Bautista (1m40.524s) crashed in the dying moments of the session.
Another crasher was KTM’s wildcard Mika Kallio (1m40.572s) to be 23rd ahead of Marc VDS Honda’s Thomas Luthi (1m40.590s), Suzuki’s wildcard Sylvain Guintoli (1m40.834s) and Avintia Ducati of Xavier Simeon (1m41.369s) – the Belgian had a quarrel with the marshals after a fall but got going.
Q2:
The pole fight heated up in the second session with Marquez taking the provisional top spot ahead of Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi and Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo. Despite a squabble with Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco, Marquez still got the best time after their first runs.
The second runs took the fight to a different level after Lorenzo shot himself to the top with a 1m38.680s displacing Marquez (1m38.746s) to second with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso (1m38.923s) in third.
Lorenzo was hugely disappointed after his first run in his pit box, but fought back well to take his first pole for Ducati – following his first win for the Italian manufacturer in Mugello, unfortunately coming a touch late for both the parties.
Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales (1m39.145s) finished fourth from Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone (1m39.148s) with Parmac Racing Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci (1m39.178s) in sixth as Rossi (1m39.266s) dropped from second to seventh.
It was Zarco (1m39.331s) in eighth with Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat (1m39.504s) showing good form to be ninth ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow (1m39.556s) – who was set to improve on his time but had a crash in Turn 13.
It was another difficult run for Honda’s Dani Pedrosa (1m39.695s) with the Spaniard only 10th for the race, finishing ahead of satellite Honda rider Nakagami (1m39.888s) – who scored his best qualifying result in his rookie season.
