Fabio Quartararo believed it, if only for a few seconds. At the very end of qualifying this Saturday, the Frenchman set the best time and thought he had taken pole position at the Spielberg circuit. His lap was ultimately canceled: the Yamaha rider, leader of the championship, will start from third place on Sunday, behind Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and Jorge Martin (Ducati Pramac), who clinched the second pole of his career.
The second row goes to Australian Jack Miller (Ducati), Spaniard Joan Mir (Suzuki), and Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac), who is second in the riders’ standings behind Quartararo. The predominant presence of Ducati at the front is not surprising: out of six races on this track since 2016, the Italian brand has won five, with KTM taking the most recent victory.
With a time of 1’22.994, Martin, who missed four races due to injury this year, set a new record on this track. On pole from the second GP of the year in Doha (Qatar), his second in the premier class, the 23-year-old Spaniard particularly enjoys the exercise: in Moto3 in 2018, he dominated qualifying ten times out of seventeen!
