The Phillip Island lap record has belonged to three-time MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo since 2013, but was finally taken down on Saturday when Martin shot 1m27.767s to claim his third pole of the campaign.
Having never ridden around Phillip Island on a MotoGP bike before this weekend, Martin was 0.013 seconds ahead of Marquez, while Banaya completed the top three ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and championship leader Fabio Quartararo to go into Sunday’s race as the -fast title contender.
The dry Q2 session began with a frantic series of laps, with three Ducati riders taking turns setting the pace.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia set a benchmark time of 1m28.206s before Marco Bezzecchi – a rookie to the circuit on a MotoGP bike like Martin – took the lead in his VR46 Desmosedici with a 1m28.185s.
Martin quickly put the pair back with a 1m28.112s inside the first four minutes of the 15-minute Q2.
Bagnaia would complete the opening heats of the session with a 1m28.054s to set the gauntlet, with Martin 0.058s behind in second.
During the final laps in the dying stages, the best sectors of the session were placed in the time screens.
But it was Martin’s 1m27.767s with two minutes to go that would win the day, the Pramac rider fending off Marquez’s Honda attack by 0.013s.
Marquez offered another glowing sign that his recovery is going in the right direction as he managed to salvage a big moment from the front end, going through the Turn 10 hairpin in the early stages of Q2.
Finding a gap from Bagnaia on his final flying lap, Marquez slotted between Martin and the factory Ducati rider for his second front-row start in four races.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was about to set a lap that would challenge the front row in the closing stages as he settled in behind team-mate Maverick Viñales.
But Espargaro suffered a huge shake-up coming out of the final corner of the pit straight and had to settle for fourth in 1m27.957s.
That put him 0.016s ahead of the factory Yamaha’s Quartararo, with Yohan Zarco rounding out second position on the sister Pramac Ducati by going through Q1 with Suzuki’s Alex Rins.
Luca Marini heads the third row on his VR46 Ducati ahead of home hero Jack Miller – whose Turn 4 at Phillip Island was renamed in his honor earlier today – of sister factory team GP22 and Bezzecchi.
Rins will start 10th on the Suzuki ahead of LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez and Maverick Viñales’ Aprilia second.
Having failed to make Q2 straight from practice, Enea Bastianini will line up as the lowest-ranked championship contender down to 13th.
The Gresini Ducati rider missed out on a place in Q2 by just 0.038 seconds as he was impeded by KTM’s Miguel Oliveira on his final flying lap – an incident which is currently being investigated by race management.
Bastianini ousted Honda’s Pol Espargaro late in Q1, who was set for a place in Q2, sitting in the top two alongside the returning Joan Mir before both drivers opted to retire from their final races.
That leaves Espargaro 14th ahead of Suzuki’s Mir, with KTM’s Brad Binder fighting for 16th ahead of RNF Racing duo Cal Crutchlow and Darin Binder.
Remy Gardner will start his only home MotoGP 19 on Tech3 KTM ahead of Gresini’s Fabio Di Gianantonio and Oliveira.
Raul Fernandez (Tech3 KTM), Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli and LCR Honda alternate Tetsuta Nagashima completed the 24-rider grid.
Add Comment