Vinales stuns to take first MotoGP pole of 2019
Full qualifying results at the Qatar MotoGP
Maverick Vinales has laid down a marker to his MotoGP rivals by taking the first pole position of the season ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez, while both Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi dropped out in Q1.
Vinales produced two stunning laps to dominate Q2 in qualifying with his best lap of 1m 53.546s securing the first pole of the year by almost two-tenths of a second on the Monster Yamaha.
Full qualifying results at the Qatar MotoGP
Maverick Vinales has laid down a marker to his MotoGP rivals by taking the first pole position of the season ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez, while both Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi dropped out in Q1.
Vinales produced two stunning laps to dominate Q2 in qualifying with his best lap of 1m 53.546s securing the first pole of the year by almost two-tenths of a second on the Monster Yamaha.
Dovizioso, winner at the Losail International Circuit 12 months ago, slotted his Ducati into second place and ahead of defending MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez on the Repsol Honda by just 0.001s.
But disaster struck for both Lorenzo and Rossi who failed to escape Q1. Lorenzo was the first rider in qualifying to go down at Turn 2 during his final run in the opening session, while his former team-mate Rossi continued to struggle for one-lap pace on his Monster Yamaha.
With two big names out, Jack Miller secured the front of the second row for Pramac Ducati despite crashing at Turn 2 on his final lap.
Fabio Quartararo stunned on his MotoGP debut by taking fifth place for new squad Petronas Yamaha ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow who progressed through Q1 along with team-mate Takaaki Nakagami.
Factory Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci, who topped FP4, heads up row three ahead of fellow countryman Franco Morbidelli on the Petronas Yamaha and Nakagami.
Alex Rins edged Suzuki team-mate Joan Mir with the pair 10th and 11th respectively with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro rounding out the runners in Q2 with 12th place.
Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia slotted into 13th place ahead of Rossi in 14th place with Lorenzo completing row five in 15th place.
Pol Espargaro leads row six on the best KTM ahead of Tech3’s Miguel Oliveira and Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat with the latter another to go down at Turn 2. Andrea Iannone placed his Aprilia in 19th place ahead of Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati) and Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM) who also suffered an off at Turn 2, with Hafizh Syahrin (Tech 3) and wildcard rider Bradley Smith (Aprilia) rounding out the grid.
