After a miserable start to his title defence in Qatar, in which he qualified 11th and finished the race ninth, Quartararo stormed to his first pole since the 2021 Catalan GP by 0.213 seconds from Pramac’s Jorge Martin.
Qualifying was delayed by 20 minutes after the preceding FP4 session was red-flagged for Alex Rins’ Suzuki catching fire at Turn 13.
Having come through a dramatic Q1 session, Francesco Bagnaia put his factory Ducati top of Q2 in the opening stages with a 1m31.615s.
But this was quickly demolished by reigning world champion Quartararo, who put his Yamaha top of the pile with a 1m31.227s just moments after team-mate Franco Morbidelli – who was fastest in the preceding FP4 – crashed at Turn 5.
At the start of his second run, Quartararo found more time to a 1m31.067s and would go unchallenged through to the chequered flag to open his pole account in 2022.
He will head the two Pramac Ducatis of Martin and Johann Zarco, who leaped up to third late on.
Jorge…
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