Jorge Martin snatches pole position just missing his own lap record

MotoGP™’s resident qualifying expert Jorge Martin snatched pole position for the two races after a stunning effort in the second session. The Spaniard’s time of 1m27.296s Martin was just 0.05s away from his lap record – and 0.6s faster than any other rider.

“Today was a tricky day with this wind,” said Martin after taking his third consecutive Phillip Island pole position.

“Finally I was able to develop the time on the second run. For sure, the race will be tough but I think we are the best in terms of pace.”

Second fastest was Marc Marquez, who set the pace on Friday, and who looked to be content to be second-fastest time.

“We are on the target, we are on the front row,” said the five-time Phillip Island winner.

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“Let’s keep going!”

Also qualifying on the front row was Maverick Viñales, whose Aprilia looked consistent throughout the session. He has been one of the favourites for the races, having already won at the circuit, on a Yamaha in 2018.

Marco Bezzecchi was fourth fastest on his Ducati ahead of World Champion Pecco Bagnaia, who will be joined on the second row by another Aprilia. Raul Fernandez literally rose from his sick bed after suffering an illness all weekend, but the Trackhouse rider was fast when it counted to take his third-best grid position of the weekend.

While the top riders will be looking good for the Tissot Sprint and Grand Prix, it was a difficult session for Jack Miller, who missed out on moving into Q2 and will start the races from 16th on the grid. Along the way the Queenslander, who started on wet weather tyres before changing to slicks, had to struggle with a damaged KTM around the 4.4km circuit.

The first qualifying session started on a damp track with most of the 12 riders on wet weather tyres. But Luca Marini started on slicks on his Honda and set the early pace, followed by Pedro Acosta – and for most of the rest of the session, those two swapped the best lap time.

The session all boiled down to all the riders’ final laps as Fernandez, who has been suffering from an illness all weekend, topped the times with a 1m29.397s lap to snatch the top place, just ahead of Ducati factory rider Enea Bastiannini.

Apart from Miller, the other rider to miss out on a top time was Acosta, whose KTM will start the races from 15th – the lowest starting position of his otherwise impressive rookie season. Of course, in the previous MotoGP™ in Japan just two weekends ago, the 20-year-old started from pole position.

All is in readiness for the Tissot Sprint, which will be run for the first time at Phillip Island, over 13 laps, due to start at 3 pm.