Vinales snatches pole from Dovizioso at Misano

Vinales charges to pole

Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) took pole position on his penultimate lap in qualifying for the Gran Premio Tribul Mastercard di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, deposing home hero and key Championship rival Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), who will now start second. Completing the top three is reigning Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), who crashed in the session when on his fastest lap – rider ok.

Despite doubts about the weather, Saturday gave the grid good conditions for practice and qualifying at Misano, and pole position came down to a three-way duel. Dovizioso was the man on provisional pole as Vinales and Marquez began their final pushes, with the younger Spaniard going fastest on his penultimate effort and then rolling off after Marquez fell out of contention.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Fourth was a late dash from Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), riding with a finger injury, and the Brit headed five-time World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) by only 0.024 seconds. Joining the experienced duo on Row 2 is rookie Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), who bounced back from a crash on Saturday morning to take a second row start in sixth.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) is seventh – one place higher than his qualifying position last year, when he went on to win – with Friday’s fastest Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) taking eighth. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) moved up slightly on his last lap, and completes the third row in P9.

Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) is P10 after leading the charge from Q1, with Ducati test rider and wild card Michele Pirro suffering a problem in the session and lining up in eleventh. Karel Abraham (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) completed the top twelve.

Andrea Dovizioso

From Q1, P13 is Hector Barbera (Reale Avintia Racing) despite a big crash earlier on Saturday, with Jack Miller (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) in fourteenth after having a lap deleted. Loris Baz (Reale Avintia Racing) locked out the fastest fifteen, with Jonas Folger (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) also falling foul of track limits and relegated to P16 after marginally heading wide in Q1.

Now it’s race time. Will we see a re-run of 2017 and the number 26 slicing through the field? Can Marquez bounce back, Vinales go one better, Dovizioso make it three in a row? And the big question: will it be rain or shine on Sunday…

Results

Pos	No.	Rider	Nat	Team	Time	Behind	Gap
1	25	Maverick VINALES	SPA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	1'32.439	0.000s	0.000s
2	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	1'32.601	0.162	0.162
3	93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1'32.636	0.197	0.035
4	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	LCR Honda	1'32.768	0.329	0.132
5	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Ducati Team	1'32.792	0.353	0.024
6	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1'32.885	0.446	0.093
7	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1'32.992	0.553	0.107
8	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	OCTO Pramac Racing	1'32.997	0.558	0.005
9	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	1'33.149	0.710	0.152
10	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Pull&Bear Aspar Team	1'33.417	0.978	0.268
11	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	Ducati Team	1'33.491	1.052	0.074
12	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Pull&Bear Aspar Team	1'34.374	1.935	0.883
13	8	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Reale Avintia Racing	1'33.920	(*) 0.357
14	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	1'33.933	(*) 0.370	0.013
15	76	Loris BAZ	FRA	Reale Avintia Racing	1'33.946	(*) 0.383	0.013
16	94	Jonas FOLGER	GER	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1'33.987	(*) 0.424	0.041
17	44	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	1'34.080	(*) 0.517	0.093
18	53	Tito RABAT	SPA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	1'34.095	(*) 0.532	0.015
19	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	OCTO Pramac Racing	1'34.132	(*) 0.569	0.037
20	42	Alex RINS	SPA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	1'34.138	(*) 0.575	0.006
21	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	1'34.148	(*) 0.585	0.010
22	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	1'34.507	(*) 0.944	0.359
23	22	Sam LOWES	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	1'35.659	(*) 2.096	1.152