Practice yesterday determined the running order for today’s qualifying. The quickest 2 in Q1 join the rest in Q2 for a straight shoot out to the flag. Here’s a quick rundown of what happened this morning.
Bezzecchi dominates Q1
Green flags out and Bagnaia was the first out in the circuit. The Ducati rider after having a disappointing session yesterday was keen to get himself into Q2 and near the front of the grid for both races. His first shot at a lap was quickly abandoned in the third sector, the Italian waiting for a lack of riders behind him using his slip stream.
Along with him having to do Q1 was Marco Bezzecchi, Brad Binder and Jorge Martin. Binder was outshone by his young teammate as Pedro Acosta yesterday set the fastest lap on the circuit. Everyone’s first set of flying laps saw Bezzecchi topping the timing.
As the final laps came in, nobody was able to touch Bezzecchi, securing his place in Q2. Brad binder shocked spectators with a time good enough for provisional P2. This was until Fabio Di Giannantonio completed an identical lap time to the KTM rider. Binder was unable to go any quicker and so out in Q1. Disappointingly, Bagnaia was unable to improve at all from P5 in this session.
Two different results for the Marquez brothers in Q2
Q2 went underway with Marc Marquez leading his brother out the pitlane. Marquez unaccompanied by his teammate this session. With only 1 Yamaha in the session, Fabio Quartararo had a lot of pressure on him to get a good qualifying result. This season the Frenchman has performed generally well in qualifying, securing pole positions. His race day luck has not been on his side. Hopefully tomorrow’s race will be different for him.
3 minutes into Q2 and pole contender Pedro Acosta crashed into turn 8. He was seen running back to the pitlane. As the lap concluded, Marc Marquez took initial pole and later improved that time to a 1:36.646. 7 minutes left on the clock and the fans were happy to see Pedro Acosta back out on the circuit. He had the luxury of an emptier track as he set to put a time on the board. His first lap good enough for P10.
The closing stages of qualifying
Marco Bezzecchi, despite doing well in Q1 was initially struggling with the limits of the track in Q2, being the only rider to not set a time besides Acosta at the 5 minute mark. Despite this, his luck seemed to turn around in the final few minutes, finding tremendous time and setting a time good enough for P2 at the time.
At the chequered flag came out, it was disappointment for Alex Marquez, seeing no improvement and qualifying 11th. He will start a row behind tomorrow due to his penalty. Pol Espargaro had an incident in these final minutes and finished 12th.
Marc Marquez secured himself yet another pole position, followed by Bezzecchi in P2 and Fabio Di Giannantonio in P3. Pedro Acosta was only able to secure P7, disappointing for him while the Yamaha of Quartararo qualified 1 place above him in P6.
The sprint race later today and tomorrow’s feature race should be filled with action and drama. Will track limits create chaos in the race?