Nakagami claims maiden MotoGP pole in Spain
Japanese rider Takaaki Nakagami grabbed his maiden MotoGP pole position for today’s Teruel Grand Prix, while championship l eader Joan Mir could only qualify in 12th place yesterday.
The 28-year-old Nakagami, who signed a new deal with Honda’s satellite team earlier this week, posted a fastest lap of one minute and 46.882 seconds.
Italian Franco Morbidelli, who was quickest in practice, qualified second, just 0.063 seconds slower, as Alex Rins rounded out the front row.
Of t he f our likely world title contenders, Spaniard Maverick Vinales qualified best.
The Yamaha man will start the race on the second row after qualifying fourth, 0.359 seconds slower than Nakagami.
Frenchman Fabio Quatararo, who trails Mir by six points at the top of the riders’ standings, will also start on the second row, in sixth.
Vinales sits third in the championship, a further six points behind, with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso 15 points adrift of Mir in fourth.
It was a miserable day for Mir, who has never won a MotoGP race, though, as he qualified last of the riders in second qualifying.
Dovizioso, who has finished second to Marc Marquez in the world championship in each of the last three years, did not even make it to Q2 and will start the race from 14th place on the grid.
Albon needs to ‘justify’ his seat
Red Bull will look outside their current pool of contracted drivers if they decide to replace Alexander Albon as Max Verstappen’s teammate for 2021, according to principal Christian Horner.
Speaking at the Portuguese Grand Prix, Horner made clear the Thai racer was running out of time to prove he deserved to remain.
“We want Alex to claim that seat and basically justify that there is no need to look at any other alternative than Alex,” he said in a pooled interview. “I think everybody in the team wants to see him do that.
“He’s had a couple of difficult weekends so he needs to bounce back here, I think, and particularly Imola with a strong weekend from start to finish.”