Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

MotoGP Austria: Marquez beats Dovizioso to pole, Rossi down in 14th

Honda rider Marc Marquez secured pole position for MotoGP's Austrian Grand Prix, beating Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso by 0.002 seconds

Valentino Rossi will start Sunday's race from 14th after failing to escape Q1.

At a track where top speed and acceleration are crucial, Ducati therefore entered the 15-minute Q2 shootout as favourite.

But it was Marquez that led the way for most of the session, with Dovizioso narrowly missing out at the end of both runs.

He was 0.03s behind Marquez during the mid-session break, but it was Dovizioso's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo who then temporarily moved into the lead.

But Marquez fought back, setting a time 0.02s faster than Lorenzo before going further clear.

While he couldn't improve on the 1m23.241s he set with three minutes to go, Marquez still ended up ahead as Dovizioso's late effort fell agonisingly short.

Lorenzo will line up third on the grid, 0.135s off the pace, while Danilo Petrucci took fourth on the third Ducati GP18.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow was best of the rest, nearly six tenths slower than Marquez in fifth.

Johann Zarco was the top Yamaha on his two-year-old Tech3 machine in sixth, followed by Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat.

Suzuki duo Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins were eighth and 10th respectively, sandwiching Dani Pedrosa.

Maverick Vinales had a subdued FP4 and then was not a factor in qualifying as he took 11th, more than a second adrift of the top spot, beating Alvaro Bautista's year-old Nieto Ducati.

Bautista and Rins were first and second in the first part of qualifying, while Rossi could only manage fourth.

The Yamaha rider, struggling with his bike's acceleration, was fifth at the mid-way point and only temporarily improves to second before he dropped behind again, with his last flyer not good enough to move into the top two.

Rossi's 14th grid spot is his worst since the 2016 Australian Grand Prix, when he was 15th.

Bautista led Bradley Smith at halfway point, and the Spaniard improved twice late on to end up first with a 1m24.195s.

KTM's sole rider Smith had to settle for 13th on the grid as he was edged out by Rins by 0.015s, with the Briton missing out on a final lap by pitting before the chequered flag fell.

Behind Rossi, Aleix Espargaro will start 15th on the lead Aprilia, with Franco Morbidelli ending Q1 sixth but starting the race 19th due to the three-place grid penalty he was handed for impeding Espargaro in practice.

Jack Miller's first run was ruined by a gearbox problem and will only start 16th, ahead of Hafizh Syahrin and Xavier Simeon.

Starting grid

Pos Rider Team Bike Gap
1 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m23.241s
2 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 0.002s
3 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati Ducati 0.135s
4 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 0.262s
5 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 0.571s
6 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 0.646s
7 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 0.681s
8 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 0.850s
9 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 0.883s
10 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 0.986s
11 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1.043s
12 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati Ducati 1.101s
13 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 1.004s
14 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1.068s
15 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 1.521s
16 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 1.564s
17 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1.593s
18 Xavier Simeon Avintia Ducati Ducati 1.627s
19 Franco Morbidelli MVDS Honda Honda 1.526s
20 Scott Redding Aprilia Aprilia 1.826s
21 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 1.937s
22 Thomas Luthi MVDS Honda Honda 2.069s
23 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati Ducati 2.098s


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article KTM boss hopes for a return to form from 2019 MotoGP signing Zarco
Next article MotoGP Austria: Iannone hits out at Suzuki over chassis differences

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe