Pumped Vinales smashes Misano record in Yamaha 1-2-3-4
2020 San Marino MotoGP - Qualifying Results
Maverick Vinales pulled it out of the bag to claim a superb lap record-breaking pole position for the San Marino MotoGP as Yamaha reeled off a tremendous 1-2-3-4 result at Misano.
The Spaniard saved his best until the very last moments with a 1m 31.411secs, a full three tenths quicker than the opposition, a lap that made him so animated in celebration on the cool down lap he set off his own airbag.
A repeat of his pole position at Misano a year earlier, it is Vinales’ second Saturday top spot of the season following on from the Austrian MotoGP, while it is the first time in Yamaha's long grand prix racing history it has ever locked out the first four positions on a grid.
A landmark day for Yamaha as no other manufacturer came close to matching the M1’s sheer performance over a single lap, Vinales will be joined by Petronas SRT Yamaha pair Franco Morbidelli and championship leader Fabio Quartararo on the front row.
Despite the similar result, the reaction was certainly different for the pair as a delighted Morbidelli got the better of his high-profile team-mate on home soil, while Quartararo appeared visibly disappointed as he watched his best laps go away from him repeatedly.
Though not quite able to match his session-topping pace from FP3, a mistake cost Rossi the chance of nudging onto the front row though fourth matches his best starting spot of the season from Jerez, where he went on to claim third.
Pramac Racing duo Jack Miller and Pecco Bagnaia emerged as the ‘best of the rest’ in fifth and sixth respectively to wave the flag for Ducati, with Suzuki pairing Alex Rins and Joan Mir well placed for a podium fight in seventh and eighth, even if the latter saw a better lap ruined by almost high-siding at turn four.
Andrea Dovizioso has work to do relative to Quartararo from ninth on the grid, while Johann Zarco sneaked a top ten on the year-old Avintia Ducati.
KTM pair Pol Espargaro and Miguel Oliveira made it into Q2 via Q1, but with the former suffering his second sizeable crash of the day, they will have ground to make up on Sunday.
Missing out on the chance to progress to Q2, Aleix Espargaro was unseated in the final seconds to leave him 13th on the grid for Aprilia’s home race, while Takaaki Nakagami emerged as the best Honda representative in 14th on a veritable day to forget for the beleaguered HRC.
Danilo Petrucci will get away from 15th on the grid, ahead of Czech Republic MotoGP winner Brad Binder and Iker Lecuona, while Stefan Bradl had Alex Marquez to ‘thank’ for scuppering his hopes of getting higher after getting caught behind his team-mate at the end of the lap. They start 19th and 21st, split by Bradley Smith.
