Miller beats Bagnaia to pole, Quartararo eighth

Having gone without a pole since the 2018 Argentine GP when he took top honours on his Pramac Ducati in similarly changeable conditions, the Australian beat teammate Francesco Bagnaia – who is carrying a three-place penalty – by 0.015 seconds at Misano.

Spots of rain began to fall around the back of the Misano circuit in the preceding FP4 session, but conditions on track were still good enough for slicks when Q1 got underway.

But across the Q1 session, more rain began to fall, forcing the riders to abort their hopes for a place in Q2 in the closing moments.

Such was the change in conditions that wet tyres were called for when the 15-minute pole shootout session got underway by all except KTM’s Miguel Oliveira and Gresini’s Enea Bastianini.

Oliveira’s first lap of 1m38.743s put him to the top of the order 2.9 seconds clear of Francesco Bagnaia on wet tyres.

Though rain kept falling, the track wasn’t wet enough to stop the slicks from being the viable option, and therefore pitlane became a hive of bike swaps.

Oliveira extended his advantage with a 1m37.332s lap, but pole would change hands between seven riders across the 15 minutes.

It would be a 1m31.899s from Miller on his penultimate lap that would seal him his first pole for the factory Ducati squad.

Teammate Bagnaia shadowed him but will drop to fifth for irresponsible riding in FP1.

However, the damage this will deal his hopes of slashing his 44-point disadvantage in the standings will be minimal as standings leader Quartararo failed to capitalise.

Quartararo was one of the first out on track in Q2 and elected for wets, but on his switch to slicks he couldn’t trouble the top spots in conditions the Yamaha has typically struggled in.

The Frenchman could only muster a 1m32.246s to qualify eighth.

Bastianini – who took his first MotoGP podium at Misano last year – qualified his year-old Ducati third, but will be promoted to second by Bagnaia’s penalty as VR46 Ducati rookie Marco Bezzecchi in fourth will now complete the front row.

Maverick Vinales was the top Aprilia rider in fifth on the timesheets, but will start fourth ahead of Bagnaia and Pramac’s Johann Zarco.

Luca Marini followed his VR46 teammate Bezzecchi through Q1 after timing his final flying lap perfectly to coincide with the worseining conditions.

He will start seventh ahead of Quartararo, with title contender Aleix Espargaro – who is Quartararo’s nearest title rival at 32 points adrift –…