Morbidelli takes maiden pole, points leader Dovizioso 17th

Franco Morbidelli saw off Petronas SRT Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo to secure his maiden MotoGP pole in qualifying at Barcelona.

Morbidelli found extra laptime at the chequered flag to produce a 1m38.798s, which secured him pole position by two tenths of second.

Championship leader Andrea Dovizioso was all the way down in 17th, the works Ducati rider nearly matching his worst qualifying of the season – an 18th place at Brno, which he could only convert into an 11th-place finish.

Morbidelli had produced the fastest lap of the weekend at that point with his second flyer in Q2, taking an immediate lead of over half a second courtesy of a 1m39.110s.

Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller, who had dominated Q1, whittled his lead down to over a tenth, but it held until the final minutes – when Morbidelli’s team-mate Quartararo improved to a 1m39.008s.

Quartararo had set no representative time early in Q2 due to getting his braking wrong at the Turn 10 hairpin, but looked to have bounced back to claim pole position, only for it to be snatched away by Morbidelli at the chequered flag.

And though Quartararo had time for another lap, having crossed the start-finish line right before the chequered flag flew, he was unable to mount a response.

Valentino Rossi, whose 2021 move to Petronas Yamaha was confirmed earlier today, made it an all-Yamaha front row, three tenths off the pace.

Miller had no fresh tyres to improve in the final stages but was only relegated to fourth, staying ahead of the fourth Yamaha of Maverick Vinales.

Johann Zarco (Avintia Ducati) snatched the final spot on the second row from his former team-mate, KTM’s Pol Espargaro, at the last second, with Esparagro joined on row three by Joan Mir (Suzuki) and Danilo Petrucci (Ducati).

Tech3 KTM rider Miguel Oliveira crashed early in Q2 and could only go 12th-fastest afterwards, completing row four behind Brad Binder (KTM) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda).

Alex Rins fell just short of joining his Suzuki stablemate Mir in Q2, as he sat in the second transfer spot at the chequered flag in Q1, only to be consigned to 13th on the starting grid by a last-second improvement from Nakagami.

Misano star Francesco Bagnaia settled for 14th, but the Pramac rider was still three places clear of the works bike of Dovizioso, who followed Bagnaia on his fastest lap but was three tenths slower.

Slotting in between the two were Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, the later competing despite damaging ankle ligaments in a paddock fall earlier this week.

Qualifying Results