Qualifying report
MotoGP Thailand GP
Thailand MotoGP: Quartararo bags pole despite crash
Petronas Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo bagged the fourth pole of his rookie MotoGP campaign in Thailand, despite crashing on his final lap.
Valentin Khorounzhiy
Edited: Oct 5, 2019, 9:53 AM
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Quartararo posted the new fastest-ever MotoGP lap of Buriram, eclipsing Dani Pedrosa’s benchmark from 2018 pre-season testing, and saw off fellow Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales and championship leader Marc Marquez – who also crashed.
Marquez, the sole Honda representative in Q2, trailed Vinales and Quartararo after his first attempt, but fired in a 1m30.109s to take the lead next time by.
Quartararo then responded with the first sub-1m30s lap of the weekend, a 1m29.920s, and Marquez could only come within 0.011s of the Frenchman’s effort during his opening run.
Having switched to a new rear tyre, Marquez was over a quarter of a second up on Quartararo’s benchmark when he slid off at the Turn 5 left-hander, dropping out of the pole battle.
Moments later, Quartararo crossed the line with a 1m29.719s lap, and the Frenchman was even quicker after two sectors on his final attempt, only to emulate Marquez by likewise going off at Turn 5.
The chequered flag had flown by that point and Vinales, who was using a third new rear tyre, stood as the only threat to Quartararo’s pole, ultimately coming up 0.106s short.
With Vinales and Marquez making up the front row, Quartararo’s teammate Franco Morbidelli was best of the rest in fourth, albeit some seven tenths down.
Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci had progressed from Q1 despite his Q2 participation having looked under threat when he failed to put together a clean lap on the opening run.
He recovered to comfortably top the first segment, and went on to qualify fifth, beating Pramac rider Jack Miller by 0.075s to top Ducati honours.
Andrea Dovizioso followed his fellow Ducati riders in seventh, ahead of Suzuki’s Joan Mir and the fourth Yamaha of Valentino Rossi.
Rossi had crashed at Turn 5 in the opening minutes of Q2, but was back in time to switch to his second bike and salvage ninth place.
Alex Rins was 10th for Suzuki, and will be joined on the fourth row by the Espargaro brothers, with Pol (KTM) heading Aleix (Aprilia).
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow occupied one of the two Q2 transfer spots for most of the opening segment, but was demoted by KTM rider Espargaro by just 0.013s in the final minutes.
He sought to strike back and pushed hard during a last-ditch effort after the chequered flag, but struggled to get the bike stopped braking late into Turn 12 and was forced to concede defeat, settling for 13th on the grid.
Takaaki Nakagami slotted in behind his teammate in 14th, albeit some four tenths off Crutchlow, while Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) will join the LCR duo on the fifth row.
Bagnaia was on course for his fastest lap when he slid off into the gravel at the Turn 7 right-hander.
Marquez’s factory Honda teammate Jorge Lorenzo will be 19th on the grid, having lapped nine tenths off the pace in Q1.
Q2 results:
Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap 1 20 Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 1'29.719 2 12 Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 1'29.825 0.106 3 93 Marc Marquez
Honda 1'29.931 0.212 4 21 Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 1'30.431 0.712 5 9 Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 1'30.522 0.803 6 43 Jack Miller
Ducati 1'30.597 0.878 7 4 Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati 1'30.692 0.973 8 36 Joan Mir
Suzuki 1'30.735 1.016 9 46 Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 1'30.741 1.022 10 42 Alex Rins
Suzuki 1'30.778 1.059 11 44 Pol Espargaro
KTM 1'31.065 1.346 12 41 Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 1'31.258 1.539 View full results
Q1 results:
Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap 1 9 Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 1'30.685 2 44 Pol Espargaro
KTM 1'30.956 0.271 3 35 Cal Crutchlow
Honda 1'30.969 0.284 4 30 Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 1'31.388 0.703 5 63 Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 1'31.416 0.731 6 29 Andrea Iannone
Aprilia 1'31.428 0.743 7 88 Miguel Oliveira
KTM 1'31.499 0.814 8 53 Tito Rabat
Ducati 1'31.554 0.869 9 99 Jorge Lorenzo
Honda 1'31.605 0.920 10 17 Karel Abraham
Ducati 1'31.773 1.088 11 82 Mika Kallio
KTM 1'31.849 1.164 12 55 Hafizh Syahrin
KTM 1'31.979 1.294 View full results
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