Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) took pole position in the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday, the tenth round of the MotoGP season, while Frenchmen Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac) will start 9th and 10th.
The reigning world champion, who signed the 16th pole of his career, the fifth in ten races this year, will start ahead of the Spaniard Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) and the South African Brad Binder (KTM). The second row will be occupied by Australian Jack Miller (KTM), Spaniard Alex Marquez (Ducati-Gresini) and Italian Luca Marini (Ducati-VR46). Bagnaia, who is leading the world championship standings with a 41 length lead over the Spaniard Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac), only 12th in qualifying, will have the opportunity to increase his lead on Saturday afternoon during of the sprint.
Two weeks after a complicated weekend at Silverstone (Great Britain), where he had his worst qualifying result in MotoGP (last), Fabio Quartararo will start from ninth place, on the third row, behind the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia -RNF). “I think we still had a little margin to do the perfect lap, but I did my best. Our pace was quite good this morning so I hope to make good starts so that I can fight for a good result in the sprint on Saturday and the race on Sunday,” said the Niçois. The 2021 world champion, who shows a new state of mind this weekend in Austria by declaring to have “no expectations” and not to worry about the classification, will try to clinch a Top 10 to reassure himself on a circuit that is ‘he appreciates.
His compatriot Johann Zarco, who had achieved a promising fifth time on Friday during qualifying practice, on the other hand took a disappointing tenth place in qualifying on Saturday and will be condemned to make a new comeback to maintain his fifth place in the championship standings. The official Honda team again experienced disastrous qualifying since neither the Spaniard Joan Mir, 2020 world champion, nor his compatriot Marc Marquez, six-time MotoGP world champion, managed to get out of the repechages. The two drivers will therefore start well away from the lead, in sixth row, in 16th place for Mir and 18th for Marquez.