Catalan MotoGP: Morbidelli gets first pole and leads Yamaha 1-2-3 – MotoGP

Franco Morbidelli snatched his first MotoGP pole position and led Yamaha’s 1-2-3 in qualifying for the Catalan Grand Prix, while Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso was only 17th.

The battle for pole in Catalunya was fought between the four Yamaha riders at the end of Q2, with Morbidelli leading Fabio Quartararo and Valentino Rossi on the same day the latter’s future was confirmed in 2021 with SRT.

Rossi set the starting pace on his factory Yamaha with a 1m39.881s, although this was immediately overtaken by Maverick Vinales with a 1m39.655s.

Morbidelli took first place with 1: 39,110 seconds to finish the first few races faster, while his teammate Quartararo was only seventh after making a mistake on the way to Turn 10.

As the session entered its final minutes, it was the Yamaha quartet lighting up the timing screens, with Quartararo leading with 1m39.008s.

But Morbidelli dug deep on his last lap and was impressive in the final sector of the Catalunya circuit, firing in 1m38.798s to claim his first premier class pole and his first in grand prix racing since his final Moto2 season in 2017. .

Quartararo (below) made one final lap just as the checkered flag went up, but couldn’t improve in the second, with Rossi completing the front row for the first time this season.

Pramac’s Jack Miller was Ducati’s best rider in fourth, the 1m39.225 Australian arrived early in Q2 in his only race on soft tires and had to use an extra set to advance to Q1.

Viñales was brought back to the center of the second row, while Avintia’s Johann Zarco climbed up to sxith with his final lap to depose his former KTM teammate Pol Espargaró to seventh place.

Joan Mir could only achieve eighth place on his Suzuki, with Danilo Petrucci at the Ducati Works and Brad Binder from KTM completing the top 10.

LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami was only able to go 11th in his one-year-old Honda after progressing from Q1, with Miguel Oliveira 12th in the Tech3 KTM after an early crash at Turn 10.

Dovizioso’s tough season continued as the Ducati rider was unable to do anything in Q1 and was only able to produce a 1m40.109s good enough to take 17th place on the grid.

Marking the third time he has not escaped from Q1, Dovizioso will start alongside Honda’s Alex Marquez in 18th and the injured Cal Crutchlow’s LCR Honda in 16th.

Alex Rins came close to entering Q2 to join teammate Mir, but was denied by Nakagami at the end of Q1 and will start 13th ahead of Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac) and Aleix Espargaró of Aprilia.

Results of the MotoGP classification of Catalonia