The Australian beats Bagnaia by 0.015s in a rain effected, sensational Q2 session that sees Quartararo & A. Espargaro start P8 & P9
For the first time since the 2018 Argentina GP, Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) will start a MotoGP™ race from pole position after coming out on top of a rain effected Q2 at the Gran Premio Gryfyn di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. The Australian’s 1:31.899 was enough to beat teammate Francesco Bagnaia by 0.015s as the Italian faces a three-second grid penalty on Sunday, with Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) making it a Ducati 1-2-3 in qualifying after finishing third.
Bezzecchi and Marini progress as rain falls in Q1
Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) set the initial benchmark in the opening 15 minutes of qualifying before Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) set a 1:31.961 to go top. Having been threatening all afternoon, spots of rain started to fall with eight minutes to go, with Bezzecchi and Martin sitting inside the all-important top two.
With three and a half minutes to go, Luca Marini jumped ahead of Martin to make it a Mooney VR46 Racing Team 1-2 – and the Italian couldn’t have timed it any better. The rain had started to fall heavier as the riders all had to pull out of their final flying laps, meaning Bezzecchi and Marini were heading into Q2, seeing Martin miss out by 0.011s.
Miller sprinkles some magic to claim long-awaited pole
Tensions were high ahead of the 15-minute pole position fight, with most of the riders starting the session on wet Michelin tyres – all but Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing). And straight away the Portuguese rider was three seconds quicker than Bagnaia with the Italian on wet tyres, it was now clear the slick tyres were the correct choice.
Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) – the top three in the World Championship – were some of the last to venture out on slicks. Meanwhile, Bezzecchi had gone fastest by half a second before Miller moved the goalposts, the Australian briefly sat 0.7s quicker than anyone before Oliveira cut the gap to 0.2s.
As expected, the times were tumbling lap by lap. Bezzecchi blitzed his way to provisional pole before Bastianini found a 1:33.812 to go quickest. Miller then split…