Petronas Yamaha SRT ended in a 1-2 formation as Fabio Quartararo led Franco Morbidelli after he scored his first MotoGP pole in Spanish GP at Jerez.
Q1:
A difficult practice session put both the Yamaha riders in the first part of the qualifying for Spanish GP at Jerez with the satellite Petronas Yamaha SRT riders through to Q2 already. The two factory riders led the way at the start of the session.
Valentino Rossi was ahead of Maverick Vinales at the half-way mark but things changed when Vinales went quicker with a 1m37.184s lap to make it into Q2. Teammate Rossi, though, did not improve on his first flying lap in the second run.
He was close to be knocked out by Honda tester Stefan Bradl but the German couldn’t get to him. Even Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller couldn’t improve as the Australian then crashed out but teammate Francesco Bagnaia had other ideas.
The VR46 academy rider improved on his final attempt with a 1m37.299s to knock his mentor out with Rossi (1m37.371s) having to settle for 13th overall in a bad start to the weekend. Bradl (1m37.406s) slotted in 14th ahead of the crashed Miller (1m37.605s).
The two Espargaro brothers were 16th and 17th respectively, with Aprilia’s Aleix (1m37.625s) ahead of KTM’s Pol (1m37.798s) with the other KTM of Johann Zarco (1m37.820s) doing well in 18th from Aprilia’s tester Bradley Smith (1m38.357s).
The Avintia Ducati riders Tito Rabat (1m38.403s) and Karel Abraham (1m38.447s) were 20th and 21st, with Tech 3 KTM’s Miguel Oliveira (1m38.894s) in 22nd from Hafizh Syahrin (1m40.042s), as Aprilia’s Andrea Iannone did not take part after his heavy FP4 crash.
Q2:
The second part of qualifying saw Honda’s Marc Marquez take provisional pole with a 1m38.970s at the half-way mark with Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Franco Morbidelli only 0.041s behind in second and Ducati’s Danilo Petrruci third.
The final runs changed the course of the Spanish GP qualifying as Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo went quickest with a 1m36.888s to take his and the Yamaha satellite team’s first pole in MotoGP as he led a 1-2 with Morbidelli (1m36.962s) in second.
Honda’s Marquez had to be content with only third as he couldn’t improve on his final run due to a moment in Turn 3, with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso (1m37.018s) in fourth ahead of the factory Yamaha of Vinales (1m37.114s).
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow (1m37.175s) finished sixth from Ducati’s Petrucci (1m37.209s), who crashed out late at Turn 1 on his final flying lap. The second LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami (1m37.332s) was eighth with Suzuki’s Alex Rins (1m37.351s) in ninth.
After making it into Q2, Bagania (1m37.384s) could only 10th quickest lap with Honda’s Jorge Lorenzo (1m37.496s) 11th after the Spaniard couldn’t improve due to his late crash. The Top 12 was rounded by Suzuki’s Joan Mir (1m37.514s).
