Catalan Grand Prix, Barcelona, ​​MotoGP, Q2: New pole position for Fabio Quartararo!

For this 7th round of the MotoGP world championship, Álex Rins, Fabio Quartararo, Cal Crutchlow, Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales, Andrea Dovizioso, Pol Espargaró, Danilo Petrucci, Marc Márquez and Jorge Lorenzo pre-qualified directly in Q2.

They were joined by Franco Morbidelli et Joan mir drafted in Q1 and the next 15 minutes will determine the place of the 12 drivers on the first 4 rows of the starting grid for the 24-lap race.

The conditions have changed significantly since this morning, with 25° in the air and 49° on the ground but also a sea breeze which is starting to blow.

Here are some references available for this moment of high tension:

Barcelona MotoGP™	2018	2019
FP1	1'39.456 Valentino Rossi (see here)	1'40.692 Marc Márquez (see here)
FP2	1'38.930 Jorge Lorenzo (see here)	1'40.079 Fabio Quartararo (see here)
FP3	1'38.923 Andrea Dovizioso (see here)	1'39.547 Alex Rins (see here)
FP4	1'39.708 Andrea Iannone (see here)	1'40.235 Fabio Quartararo (see here)
QP1	1'39.217 Marc Márquez (see here)
QP2	1'38.680 Jorge Lorenzo (see here)
warm up	1'39.571 Andrea Dovizioso (see here)
Course	Lorenzo, Marquez, Rossi (see here)
All time lap record	1'38.680 Jorge Lorenzo (2018)

When the track opens, Maverick Vinales rushes first, immediately followed like his shadow by Marc Márquez which stands out by having chosen a medium rear tire.

During the launch round, Marc Márquez immediately takes a fast pace to free himself from his opponents.

Maverick Vinales However, he was the fastest during the first flying lap thanks to an already very fast time of 1'40.007. It precedes Alex Rins, Franco Morbidelli, Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez.

On the next pass, it was the 2 Petronas drivers who proved to be the fastest, Franco Morbidelli in 1'39.711, preceding by 47 thousandths fabio quartararo.

Midway through the session, Danilo Petrucci, who occupies 3rd position, makes a mistake in turn 5.

At the end of the first run, the hierarchy is composed of Franco Morbidelli, Fabio Quartararo, Danilo Petrucci, Alex Rins, Marc Márquez, Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales, Andrea Dovizioso, Cal, Joan Mir, Lorenzo and Pol Espargaró.

On resumption, we notice Marc Márquez has fitted a soft rear tire while the 2 Suzukis are now equipped with medium.

2 minutes from the end of the session, Maverick Vinales provisionally wins in 1'39.710 but fabio quartararo lights up the first 3 sectors in red and concludes his lap in 1'39.484, best time of the weekend and pole position at stake!

Right after, Marc Márquez rises to 2nd position while Alex Rins makes a mistake.

Splendid pole position for the French rookie today, even if with 4 Yamahas in the top 5, we will obviously also have to count on Valentino Rossi tomorrow…

The “optimistic” attitude of Maverick Vinales in the last lap is under investigation…

Ranking of Q2 of the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com