Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac) will start in pole position for the MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal on Sunday after setting the fastest time in qualifying ahead of Spaniard Joan Mir (Suzuki). The Spaniard Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) will complete the front row with the 3rd time.
The Frenchman dispossessed Jack Miller of the best time in the dying seconds of the qualifying session. It should also be noted that the Spaniard Marc Marquez thought he too had won this pole position. But his time was invalidated due to the yellow flag caused by the fall of Pol Espargaro. Johann Zarco takes the seventh pole position of his career in MotoGP. However, he has never won a premier class race after winning the Moto2 world title twice (2015, 2016).
“I didn’t expect such a good lap,” admitted Zarco, who took advantage of a dry track with the return of good weather after testing took place on a wet track. “It was difficult conditions with puddles and we were wondering which tires to use in the last practice session. We were finally able to use the dry tires for qualifying and it worked very well,” he added.
The leader of the world championship 18th on the starting line
The tricky conditions hurt several favourites. Besides Bastianini who crashed in the first part of qualifying, another Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) also crashed heavily in Q1 apparently hurting himself.
The other Frenchman engaged in MotoGP, Fabio Quartararo, reigning world champion, will start from the 2nd row after having obtained the 5th time. He too saw one of his times invalidated following the yellow flag after the Espargaro accident. For his part, the leader of the world championship, the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati-Gresini), completely missed his qualifications and will start in 18th position.