Quartararo handed Portimao pole by deletions, Marquez sixth

Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo took pole position for the MotoGP race at Portimao, with two riders having gone quicker than him in qualifying but having had their laptimes deleted.

The two riders in question were Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and Quartararo’s team-mate Maverick Vinales, who would’ve lined up first and second but will instead be 11th and 12th on the grid.

Returning six-time champion Marc Marquez progressed through the opening segment and went on to qualify sixth.

Marquez tucked in behind champion Joan Mir on his first run in Q1, hounding the Suzuki all through the lap and producing a time that put him first on the timing screens on the halfway point.

And though Mir managed to shake him off for the second run, he could only get within half a tenth of Marquez’s time – albeit both still progressed into Q2 fairly comfortably.

But Marquez, clearly mindful of stressing his arm too much, decided to leave it until late in the pole shoot-out to head out for a single run.

By then Quartararo already held provisional pole, having set the fastest lap of the weekend so far – a 1m39.028s – with his very first attempt.

He improved to a 1m38.862s once returning to the circuit on a fresh set of softs, and his next attempt was looking quicker still, only to get away from him in the final sector.

And that left the door open nicely for Bagnaia, who had had his fastest time in the early stages of Q2 deleted for a different yellow flag offence but uncorked an explosive 1m38.494s right before the chequered flag flew.

It left Quartararo at 0.368s off as Bagnaia’s nearest rival, but after a small wait once the running concluded Bagnaia’s lap was cancelled due to a yellow flag infringement – presumably related to a crash for Miguel Oliveira.

The deletion promoted Alex Rins to a standout second for Suzuki and gave championship leader Johann Zarco a front row start, despite him having crashed at Turn 11 earlier in Q2.

Bagnaia’s team-mate Jack Miller will lead the second row in fourth, ahead of Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli and Marquez, who ended up 0.259s off pole after his single Q2 run.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, Avintia Ducati’s star rookie Luca Marini and reigning champion Mir will be on row three, with the crashing Oliveira joining Bagnaia and Vinales on row four.

Marquez’s brother Alex and new team-mate Pol Espargaro offered the sternest resistance to Marquez and Mir in Q1, and ran close together in the final minutes of the session, but ultimately couldn’t get particularly close – with Espargaro 14th behind the LCR man.

Espargaro had had a big crash in the pre-qualifying FP4, being thrown off his bike through the downhill Turn 15 right-hander.

None of the Q1 KTMs were really in the mix for a Q2 spot, with Brad Binder struggling to string together a fast lap late on and having to settle for 15th.

Valentino Rossi was the only Yamaha absent from Q2 and had to settle for 17th in the end, right behind Enea Bastianini (Avintia Ducati).

Only 20 riders took to the track in qualifying. Jorge Martin has been ruled out from the weekend after his violent crash in third practice, as he remains in hospital after suffering a broken thumb and suspected other fractures.

Takaaki Nakagami, meanwhile, continues to feel the after-effects of his big fall on Friday, and had to skip both FP4 and qualifying due to too much pain “between his sternum and collarbone”.

A decision on whether Nakagami will race will be taken on Sunday morning.

Qualifying Results