Jerez: Quartararo takes shock pole

Back on track and it wasn’t long before a certain 20-year-old was setting the timing screens alight, but would he be able to hold his advantage? Absolutely. Quartararo went P1 with a blistering 1:36.880 – the best lap of the weekend and a new lap record. It was far from over though, Championship leader Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) was on a very hot lap and was threatening Quartararo’s time, but the Italian lost time in the last sector and slotted into fourth. And what about Morbidelli? The Italian was pushing hard and propelled himself into P2, 0.082 off his teammate and 0.008 ahead of Marquez.

Marquez came up just short

At this point, Marquez was gearing up for his third run. A tenth down in the first sector wasn’t what he was looking for and, in true 93 fashion, he was on ragged edge – but this proved costly. Out of shape at Pedrosa Corner and a huge front end slide at Turn 7 ended his pole position hopes, handing Quartararo his maiden MotoGP P1 grid slot start, four years on from his maiden Grand Prix pole at Jerez, as Petronas Yamaha SRT take a sensational Spanish GP qualifying 1-2. The last time that happened? Sete Gibernau and Marco Melandri at the 2005 Chinese GP.

Marquez completes the front row, he loses his youngest premier class pole crown to Quartararo but starts just ahead of Dovizioso in fourth. Q1 graduate Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) will launch from P5 after a good second run in Q2 to finish 0.234 from pole, last year’s pole man Crutchlow completes the second row in sixth. Petrucci, a late crasher at Turn 1, starts seventh after looking strong all weekend. The Italian only 0.3 from P1 as he’s joined by Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) – his best qualifying in the premier class – and Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) on the third row.

Marquez said afterward, “I’m very happy for the front row, normally here we struggle a bit more to put one fast lap together. The most important part is that we have prepared well for the race and tomorrow we can understand our level compared to everyone else’s. We have to wait a little bit to see what the temperature does tomorrow. Congratulations to Fabio Quartararo who took the record of youngest pole setter from me, he did a really good job today. Tomorrow it will be a good race with a mix of names at the front."