He’s No. 1:
Fabio snatches pole from vinales at the last lap
Petronas Yamaha SRT’s French rider Fabio Quartararo celebrating with team officials after taking pole position for the MotoGP race in Sepang. — S.S.KANESAN / The Star
SEPANG: Fabio Quartararo claimed a stunning last-lap pole position to give Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team a splendid race debut at the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix as newly crowned world champion Marc Marquez crashed heavily.
The 20-year-old French rookie rider put in a sizzling 1:58.303 right at the flag to snatch pole from fellow Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales of Spain in a dramatic Q2 session yesterday.
The lap is the fastest ever set on a MotoGP race weekend at the Sepang International Circuit and came so late that Vinales was already celebrating, thinking pole position was in the bag with his best effort of 1:58.406.
There were more cheers for the Malaysian-owned team as Quartararo’s teammate Franco Morbidelli made it a Yamaha frontrow lock-out with third on the second Petronas bike with 1:58.432.
Quartararo spent much of the second qualifying session trying to shake Marquez from his slipstream. The Spaniard doggedly hung on to the back of the Frenchman every time he went out.
Quartararo did his best to delay the critical final run, hoping Marquez would give up before he decided to make a final fling with two minutes to go.
But Quartararo didn’t have Marquez in his tow for long as the Honda rider suffered a spectacular high-side on his way into Turn 2.
Marquez, looking for his 12th win of the season, walked away from the frightening accident but ended up 11th thanks to not setting a time on his final run. It is his worst starting position since the 2015 Italian Grand Prix.
Quartararo, who is still limping from a crash during the Australian
GP last weekend, was pleased he and Morbidelli secured the double front row – the fourth time this season this has happened.
“We came to Malaysia from a tough weekend in Australia and we’ve suffered a lot to get to here. But it’s the home race for the team, and while they’ve not put pressure on us, they clearly want us to perform. That makes the pole position very special for me and the double front row even more special for the team.
“I’m feeling good for the race, like we’re ready to go now.
“We’re not entirely sure which tyre we’re going to use but we’ve got the warm-up to experiment with it and see how it goes,” said Quartararo, who already has six podium finishes but is looking for his first race win.
Morbidelli said winning at Sepang would be fantastic but said it will be a very tough dogfight.
“When you look at the pace, many riders can fight for the win and there’s not a big gap between us, and I think that means we’re going to start off with a big group battle before the guys who have the pace to escape.
“To win here for the team would be unbelievable – I just can’t imagine it.
“But tomorrow we’ll see what’s possible,” said Morbidelli.
Australian Jack Miller heads up the second row for Ducati in front of fellow Australian Grand Prix rostrum finisher Cal Crutchlow of Britain with Italian Valentino Rossi claiming sixth place for Yamaha.
Crutchlow and Miller finished second and third respectively behind Marquez in Phillip Island last Sunday.
The 20-lap race will start at 3pm with more than 100,000 spectators attending today.