Martin secures third consecutive pole as Quartararo gets the better of Bagnaia
Wasting no time, Martin set a brutal pace as he churned out a time of 1:29.621 on just his first flying lap.
Martin’s effort was over two tenths clear of Miller, while title contender Fabio Quartararo was over half a second back on the Pramac rider.
Further back was series leader Francesco Bagnaia, with the Italian way off the pace following the first time attack runs.
Bagnaia was over 1.1 seconds down on Martin’s time, while Maverick Vinales, who didn’t set a lap early on, then went P4 with five minutes to go.
A late fall for Miller put his provisional front row at risk, which was then put under even more danger by Marquez as the Repsol Honda rider moved ahead of him into second.
But luckily for Miller, Quartararo lost too much time in the final sector to overhaul the Australian.
Bagnaia’s difficult weekend continued as he failed to find significant gains. The Ducati rider could only manage eighth.
There was a late scare for Quartararo as the Yamaha rider ran off track at turn two, however, he managed to remain aboard his M1.
Bastianini out in MotoGP Q1 at Valencia
After failing to secure a top ten spot in FP3, Enea Bastianini was the big name needing to advance through Q1.
And following the opening time attack Bastianini was inside the all-important top two positions, although six tenths off Vinales.
Making his return to track action after missing FP4 due to a big turn ten crash in FP3, Raul Fernandez was given the all-clear after undergoing medical checks.
As Alex Rins went fastest while using a soft front tyre - a surprising choice given hard or medium fronts were seemingly the preferred options throughout the weekend - another Alex in the form of Marquez encountered trouble in sector one.
Marquez pulled off track after an issue with his RC213V occurred just after the exit of turn one.
There were more issues for Honda at the start of the second and final time attack runs, as Pol Espargaro’s qualifying came to an early end after he crashed at turn two.
Vinales then went back to the top of the leaderboard before Bastianini jumped into second. However, the Gresini rider’s qualifying also came to an abrupt end as he fell at turn two.
With the Italian in the gravel, his hopes of moving through to Q2 were dashed when Rins moved back in front of him with P2.
