‘None of the MotoGP riders’ like Friday format, qualifying 'compromises a lot your race'
Has MotoGP qualifying become disproportionately important and what might be done to improve it?
The introduction of Saturday Sprints has magnified the significance of MotoGP qualifying, which now decides the grid order for two races each weekend, instead of one.
Add in the known overtaking difficulties and risk of rising front-tyre pressure when buried in the pack and a small mistake in qualifying, or simply bad luck in terms of yellow flags, can come at a heavy price.
Perhaps the biggest ‘qualifying’ moment of the weekend occurs on Friday afternoon, where a top ten place provides direct Qualifying 2 access and guarantees a rider will be starting no lower than 12th (out of a 22).
Those that miss the cut do battle in Qualifying 1, which allows the two fastest riders to join the Friday top ten in fighting for pole position in Qualifying 2. The rest qualify in the order they finished Q1, from 13th on the grid onwards.
While riders don’t like the pressure of pushing for flying laps on Friday afternoon, most understand it’s good for the show to have something to chase on day one of a race weekend.
A topsy-turvy grid can also provide better racing, but should the system be tweaked to allow, for example, more riders to advance from Q1 to Q2?
The Moto2 and Moto3 classes allow 14 riders (rather than the 10 in MotoGP) directly through to Q2 after practice and then allow a further four riders (instead of two) to progress past Q1, admittedly from a bigger field.
Widening the Q1 to Q2 places from two to four in MotoGP would at least help address situations such as Portimao, where the top seven riders in Q1 lapped faster than the slowest rider in the following Q2 session.
Aleix Espargaro, third in Q1, was the quickest of those not to advance to the pole position shootout, even though his lap time would have been fast enough for 9th on the grid if he had repeated it in Q2. Instead, he was left to start 13th.
“The lap time I did was close to the second row if I’d been in Q2,” Espargaro said.
The Spaniard said riders are not fans of the current practice and qualifying system, but acknowledged it’s hard to find a solution that suits all parties.
“I don't really enjoy the format, that you have to qualify in Free Practice 2 to go in the top ten,” Espargaro said. “I think none of the riders in MotoGP [like it]. I can tell you because in the Safety Commission, nobody likes it. But I think it's good for the show and you have to adapt.
"But it’s super, super important the qualifying. It compromises a lot your race. If you are able to put the bike on the first row in qualifying, then in the Sprint you have to be very bad not to finish in the top five! It’s how it is.”
Espargaro was reluctant to reveal any specific alternatives suggested by the riders to replace the current top ten on a Friday concept.
“We just give our opinion, but it's Dorna’s championship, not the riders’,” he said.
“So we have to follow the rules. And the reality is that for the show when you put two soft tyres [for time attacks] on a Friday afternoon, for the people watching it’s nice.
“So I understand, if we do one hour without soft tyres it's going to be very boring.
"But yeah, [qualifying] can compromise a lot the weekend. It’s very important. But it's not about if I like it or don't like it.”
