Thailand MotoGP: Quartararo bags pole despite crash

Quartararo posted the new fastest-ever MotoGP lap of Buriram, eclipsing Dani Pedrosa’s benchmark from 2018 pre-season testing, and saw off fellow Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales and championship leader Marc Marquez – who also crashed.

Marquez, the sole Honda representative in Q2, trailed Vinales and Quartararo after his first attempt, but fired in a 1m30.109s to take the lead next time by.

Quartararo then responded with the first sub-1m30s lap of the weekend, a 1m29.920s, and Marquez could only come within 0.011s of the Frenchman’s effort during his opening run.

Having switched to a new rear tyre, Marquez was over a quarter of a second up on Quartararo’s benchmark when he slid off at the Turn 5 left-hander, dropping out of the pole battle.

Moments later, Quartararo crossed the line with a 1m29.719s lap, and the Frenchman was even quicker after two sectors on his final attempt, only to emulate Marquez by likewise going off at Turn 5.

The chequered flag had flown by that point and Vinales, who was using a third new rear tyre, stood as the only threat to Quartararo’s pole, ultimately coming up 0.106s short.

With Vinales and Marquez making up the front row, Quartararo’s teammate Franco Morbidelli was best of the rest in fourth, albeit some seven tenths down.

Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci had progressed from Q1 despite his Q2 participation having looked under threat when he failed to put together a clean lap on the opening run.

He recovered to comfortably top the first segment, and went on to qualify fifth, beating Pramac rider Jack Miller by 0.075s to top Ducati honours.

Andrea Dovizioso followed his fellow Ducati riders in seventh, ahead of Suzuki’s Joan Mir and the fourth Yamaha of Valentino Rossi.

Rossi had crashed at Turn 5 in the opening minutes of Q2, but was back in time to switch to his second bike and salvage ninth place.

Alex Rins was 10th for Suzuki, and will be joined on the fourth row by the Espargaro brothers, with Pol (KTM) heading Aleix (Aprilia).

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow occupied one of the two Q2 transfer spots for most of the opening segment, but was demoted by KTM rider Espargaro by just 0.013s in the final minutes.

He sought to strike back and pushed hard during a last-ditch effort after the chequered flag, but struggled to get the bike stopped braking late into Turn 12 and was forced to concede defeat, settling for 13th on the grid.

Takaaki Nakagami slotted in behind his teammate in 14th, albeit some four tenths off Crutchlow, while Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) will join the LCR duo on the fifth row.

Bagnaia was on course for his fastest lap when he slid off into the gravel at the Turn 7 right-hander.

Marquez’s factory Honda teammate Jorge Lorenzo will be 19th on the grid, having lapped nine tenths off the pace in Q1.

Q2 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	1'29.719
2	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'29.825	0.106
3	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'29.931	0.212
4	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	1'30.431	0.712
5	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'30.522	0.803
6	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'30.597	0.878
7	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'30.692	0.973
8	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1'30.735	1.016
9	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'30.741	1.022
10	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'30.778	1.059
11	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'31.065	1.346
12	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'31.258	1.539
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Q1 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'30.685
2	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'30.956	0.271
3	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'30.969	0.284
4	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'31.388	0.703
5	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1'31.416	0.731
6	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	1'31.428	0.743
7	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	1'31.499	0.814
8	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'31.554	0.869
9	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	1'31.605	0.920
10	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'31.773	1.088
11	82	Mika Kallio	KTM	1'31.849	1.164
12	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	1'31.979	1.294
View full results