Qualifying report

MotoGP Brazilian GP: Di Giannantonio tops crash-filled qualifying

Crashes dominated qualifying as Fabio di Giannantonio shone to take a surprise pole position

Fabio di Giannantonio came through Q1 to deliver pole position for VR46 in the MotoGP Brazilian Grand Prix, despite suffering a late crash himself in qualifying.

Although the track remained dry throughout Saturday after heavy showers earlier in the weekend, the Goiania circuit caught out several riders in qualifying.

Francesco Bagnaia was the first rider to go down in Q2, losing his factory Ducati at Turn 10 just three minutes into the session.

Championship leader Pedro Acosta was the next rider to suffer a fall, becoming the latest victim of the notorious Turn 4, with Marc Marquez crashing at the same corner soon after.

While all three were able to return to the garage to mount their second bikes, the early drama allowed di Giannantonio to grab provisional pole on the VR46 Ducati, with Marquez holding on to second place.

Jorge Martin held third place at the end of the first runs, with his Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi grabbing fifth at the halfway mark.

When the second runs began, di Giannantonio fractionally improved his time to 1m17.410s, but this still left him vulnerable to his rivals in the dying minutes of qualifying.

Martin was on course to go quicker than the Italian, but went down at Turn 6 with just three minutes left on the clock, leading to yellow flags being waved.

Di Giannantonio himself suffered a late crash at Turn 4 shortly after, plunging qualifying into chaos.

However, no one rider was ultimately able to outpace the 27-year-old, who held on to clinch just the second pole position of his MotoGP career.

Thailand Grand Prix winner Bezzecchi climbed to second towards the end of the session, but was unable to replicate his Q1 lap, which would have secured him pole position by 0.002s.

Third place on the grid went to the factory Ducati of Marquez, while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo put together an incredible lap in the final moments to grab fourth.

Martin remained fifth despite his late crash, beating the Trackhouse Aprilia of Ai Ogura.

Gresini duo Fermin Aldeguer and Alex Marquez wound up seventh and eighth respectively, while Acosta could manage no better than ninth on the factory KTM following his early tumble.

Johann Zarco (LCR), Bagnaia and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac) made up the fourth row of the grid in 10th, 11th and 12th respectively.

Diogo Moreira, Team LCR Honda

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Factory Honda rider Joan Mir ended up 13th on the grid, after being pipped to the final Q2 spot by VR46 rival di Giannantonio. He was closely followed by home favourite Diogo Moreira on the LCR-mounted Honda.

The Brazilian held a provisional Q2 spot at the end of the opening run, but a mistake on his next flying lap prevented him from improving his earlier time of 1m17.812s.

Franco Morbidelli (VR46), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) and Alex Rins (Yamaha) were next up in 15th, 16th and 17th respectively. Both Jack Miller (Pramac) and Luca Marini (Honda) suffered their second crashes of the weekend in Q1, consigning them to 18th and 19th on the grid.

The 22-bike field was propped up by the KTMs of Maverick Vinales, Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini.

Q2 results:

Q2

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	6	1'17.410		178.349
2	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	10	+0.070 1'17.480	0.070	178.187
3	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	9	+0.081 1'17.491	0.011	178.162
4	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	10	+0.151 1'17.561	0.070	178.001
5	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	7	+0.220 1'17.630	0.069	177.843
6	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	10	+0.292 1'17.702	0.072	177.678
7	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	10	+0.305 1'17.715	0.013	177.649
8	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	10	+0.389 1'17.799	0.084	177.457
9	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	8	+0.624 1'18.034	0.235	176.922
10	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	9	+0.655 1'18.065	0.031	176.852
11	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	8	+0.712 1'18.122	0.057	176.723
12	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	8	+1.012 1'18.422	0.300	176.047
View full results

Q1 results:

Q1

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	9	1'17.408		178.353
2	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	8	+0.123 1'17.531	0.123	178.070
3	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	9	+0.302 1'17.710	0.179	177.660
4	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	9	+0.404 1'17.812	0.102	177.427
5	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	9	+0.407 1'17.815	0.003	177.420
6	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	10	+0.556 1'17.964	0.149	177.081
7	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	9	+0.567 1'17.975	0.011	177.056
8	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	7	+0.614 1'18.022	0.047	176.950
9	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	3	+0.761 1'18.169	0.147	176.617
10	M. Viñales Tech 3	12	KTM	8	+0.768 1'18.176	0.007	176.601
11	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	9	+0.829 1'18.237	0.061	176.463
12	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	9	+1.071 1'18.479	0.242	175.919
View full results