Misano Adriatico — Saturday, Jack Miller won the pole position in the San Marino MotoGP, giving the Australian his second front row start in the top class.
Miller, who last won pole position in Argentina in 2018, produced his fastest qualifying time of one minute and 31.899 seconds on his eighth lap of a thrilling, though wet, qualifying run at Misano.
Saturday was a great day for Miller, who had also topped the practice times earlier in the day.
The 27-year-old finished just 0.015 seconds ahead of his colleague Francesco Bagnaia, who will start Sunday’s race in sixth due to a three-place grid penalty imposed on Friday.
Bagnaia was deemed to have obstructed Alex Marquez during practice on Friday morning, diminishing his hopes of reducing the 44-point deficit between himself and championship leader Fabio Quartararo.
However, the 25-year-old will start higher on the grid than the incumbent world champion Quartararo, who finished 0.347 seconds behind Miller and placed eighth on the grid.
Aleix Espargaro, who is second in the overall standings and 32 points behind Quartararo, is one position ahead of him.
Luca Marini, the half-brother of Valentino Rossi, finished eighth after edging off Jorge Martin in the first qualifying session to secure a berth in the pole-deciding second session.
Martin was originally scheduled to participate in the second qualifying session, but was relegated to 15th when his fastest lap in Saturday’s early practice session was disqualified.
The Spaniard seemed to have regained a chance to contend for pole position, but a 1:32.004 from Marini just before rain began to pour on the circuit handed the Italian second place in Q1 and demoted Martin to thirteenth on the grid.
In Moto3, Deniz Oncu won the pole position with a time of 1:42,448 seconds, while championship leader Sergio Garcia finished 13th, 0.649 seconds off the pace.
Garcia leads the Moto3 standings with 193 points, 15 more than teammate and fellow Spaniard Izan Guevara, who will start Sunday’s race in fifth position.
AFP