MotoGP Indonesia Qualifying: Fabio Quartararo back in pole position

March 19, 2022March 19, 2022 EMR Writer

Fabio Quartararo will start tomorrow’s race in Indonesia in pole position after a solid qualifying.

Fabio Quartararo will start tomorrow’s MotoGP race from pole position after a thrilling Q1 and Q2 qualifying session.

Q1 was wild before it had even started with top riders like Francesco Bagnaia, Joan Mir, Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro all forced to go via the session instead of having direct access to Q2 as they’d expected. Marc Marquez was desperate to ensure he was quick enough to qualify in the Q1 promotion spots and threw everything including the kitchen sink at it to try and get himself a Q2 spot.

Sadly a lack of confidence in the front end and too much eagerness turned out to be his downfall as he suffered not one but two crashes on two different bikes. It was pretty courageous to crash, get back to the pits, remount and then go out on bike number two as we’ve seen previously, however, his eagerness got the better of him and a second crash on bike #2 puts Marquez in P15 overall.

Other riders that crashed in the Q1 session were Joan Mir and Marco Bezzecchi who have added their name to the huge list of riders who have crashed today in all three classes, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Francesco Bagnaia were promoted into Q2.

Q2 began with more crashes at the hands of Franco Morbidelli who turned his machine into scrap metal before also returning to the pits and going back out on his second bike, eventually qualifying in P12 behind rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Francesco Bagnaia’s form from Q1 followed him into the Q2 session and he briefly led the session. After leading all the free practice sessions and gaining valuable experience in the process, Fabio Quartararo looked incredibly strong with his pace paying dividends in qualifying and it wouldn’t be long before he knocked Bagnaia off his perch and would stay atop for the remainder of the session as the rest of the grid sorted themselves out.

The only man that looked competent enough to battle for pole position was Aleix Espargaro but much like many other riders, he would suffer a crash and was unable to continue.

This left the job in the hands of Pramac Ducati whose riders fired in an incredibly late charge to come home in P2 and P3 overall, Martin leading Zarco.

Row two was headed by Brad Binder who also put on a late charge and blasted his way up the order in the final moments of the session, it wasn’t enough for the front row but he’s got a perfect seat behind the world champion and there’s no doubt that it’ll be utilised to its full potential, joining Brad on row two are Enea Bastianini and Francesco Bagnaia.

Binder’s teammate Miguel Oliveira places one row behind his teammate in P7 joined by Alex Rins then Jack Miller with Aleix Espargaro rounding out the top 10.

Full results –