Quartararo snatches pole in dramatic qualifying
FABIO Quartararo made light of the tricky changeable conditions and his recent surgery to claim pole for the French MotoGP in Saturday qualifying at Le Mans.
With intermittent rain making life difficult at the Bugatti circuit, home favourite Quartararo topped the time sheets from his Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales with Ducati’s Jack Miller completing the front row.
Quartararo’s pole grab comes just 11 days after undergoing ‘arm pump’ surgery following problems with his right forearm, which saw him slip to a 13th place finish last time out at Jerez.
“It’s fantastic,” beamed the 22-year-old. “I’m pleased to be on pole for the second successive time here.”
The Frenchman had started the Spanish MotoGP last time out at the top of the standings. He surged into an early lead and seemed set for his third win in four races this season. But muscle problems left him with no strength in his right forearm to finish down the pack and in tears.
He is placed two points off the top of the standings which are led by Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati).
Both Bagnaia and the reigning world champion Joan Mir failed to make it out of Q1 and into Q2 and the battle for pole, leaving the pair well down the grid for Sunday’s race.
Franco Morbidelli on Yamaha’s satellite SRT bike is on the second row after posting the fourth quickest time in Q2 alongside the other home chance Johann Zarco and sixtime world champion Marc Marquez.
Marquez, back this season after multiple operations on the arm he broke in the opening race of last year, led for much of qualifying before his time was bettered in the closing flying lap.
Pole looked set to go to Marc Marquez as spots of rain appeared in the latter stages, but the top six changed right at the death as a number of riders found lap time in the conditions.
Meanwhile, Q1 claimed several big hitters including championship leader Francesco Bagnaia and Suzuki duo Joan Mir and Alex Rins.
Q1 was completed on wet tyres, but the track had dried enough for the start of the pole shootout session to prompt the Petronas SRT duo of Valentino Rossi and Franco Morbidelli to start straight away on slicks.
But the gamble for Rossi backfired as a near-highside at the final corner on a lap set to put him top of the pile early on sent him into the gravel.
At the same time, Ducati’s Jack Miller lit up the timing screens having switched to slicks moments earlier to take over at the top of the pile with a 1m35.472s, which he improved to a 1m34.374s next time around.
Johann Zarco on the Pramac Ducati set the initial session benchmark on wet tyres and returned to top spot on slicks with five minutes remaining with a 1m34.211s.
But this lasted just seconds as Honda’s Pol Espargaro blitzed this with a 1m33.150s, before Honda teammate Marc Marquez shot to the top of the pile with a 1m33.037s.
As Marquez set that lap, yellow flags in the third sector were being shown for a crash for KTM’s Miguel Oliveira while rain in the first sector was falling.
This looked set to lock Marquez into a stunning first pole since 2019, heading a Honda 1-2-3 from LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and Espargaro.
But conditions cleared enough at the death and the timing screens began to light up again, with Maverick Vinales first to break Honda hearts with a 1m32.681s.
Quartararo was going even quicker behind him, however, and found 0.081 seconds to snatch his third-successive pole of 2021.
Miller found a 1m32.704s at the end to complete the front row ahead of Morbidelli and Zarco, while Marquez was shuffled back to sixth at the chequered flag.
Nakagami heads row three in seventh ahead of Espargaro, who crashed right at the end while on a quick lap. Rossi will start ninth.
Oliveira’s late crash left him in 10th ahead of surprise Q1 graduate Lorenzo Savadori on the Aprilia and Avintia rookie Luca Marini, who followed Savadori through Q1.
Aleix Espargaro on the sister Aprilia went top just seconds before the chequered flag, but prematurely celebrated his effort and was caught out by the late improvements for teammate Savadori and Marini.
Espargaro will start 13th ahead of the Suzuki duo of world champion Mir and Rins, both of whom setting the Q1 pace in the first half of the session.
Championship leader Bagnaia added his name the list of high-profile riders unable to escape Q1, the Ducati rider only able to go 16th quickest ahead of 2020 Le Mans winner Petrucci.
His Tech 3 KTM teammate Iker Lecuona will start 18th ahead of LCR’s Alex Marquez, who crashed late on, as did Pramac’s Tito Rabat in 20th.
Brad Binder’s miserable Le Mans weekend continued in Q1, the KTM rider set to start 21st ahead of only Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini.