Jorge Martin stormed to MotoGP pole in dry Australian GP qualifying ahead of Marc Marquez, with Maverick Vinales rounding the Top 3.
Q1 –
The damp conditions in first part of MotoGP qualifying in Australian GP at Phillip Island saw Honda pair of Joan Mir and Luca Marini along with GASGAS Tech 3’s Augusto Fernandez venture on the slick compound straight on, when a lot of riders went for wet tyres.
There were few who did not take the track early on but waited for the early part to get over with and head out in the second half on the slick compound, which included Ducati’s Enea Bastianini. The lap times only kept on improving as the session progressed.
Tech 3’s Pedro Acosta kept himself in the hunt of Q2 throughout until the last moment when Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez improved on his last attempt to set a 1m29.397s lap to make it into Q2 along with Bastianini, who was the last rider to improve.
They dropped Marini to third and start 13th ahead of LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco. The improvements saw Acosta drop to 15th ahead of KTM’s Jack Miller, who also hit an animal in one of his laps earlier in the session and had to shake it off from the bike.
A Fernandez was 17th from Mir, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in 19th, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro 20th, LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami 21st and Trackhouse’s Lorenzo Savadori 22nd – who is subbing for an injured Miguel Oliveira.
Q2 –
The second part in MotoGP qualifying in Australian GP was dry for the riders and there was tyre strategy in play with Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin opting for the hard front which no one else opted for, as majority went for medium front tyre.
There was an early faller after VR46 Ducati’s Fabio di Giannantonio crashed out in Sector 1. After the first run, Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales led the way with a 1m27.991s from Martin and Gresini Ducati’s Marc Marquez, as R Fernandez slotted in fourth from Q1.
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia was fifth with Bastianini in ninth. The second run saw a slight moment from Martin but it didn’t deter him to storm to a MotoGP pole in Australian GP with a 1m27.296s lap, which was 0.594s quicker than the second placed rider.
It was Marquez in second after late improvement to demote Vinales to third, as VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi improved as well to fourth from Bastianini, who switched to front hard for his second run along with teammate Bastianini in 10th.
R Fernandez was sixth from Pramac’s Franco Morbideli, Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Yamaha’s Alex Rins, with Bastianini following him along with KTM’s Brad Binder in 11th and di Giannantonio 12th.