Quartararo bags pole for Portuguese MotoGP contest after Bagnaia loses lap

Fabio Quartararo will start from pole after qualifying fastest for the Portuguese Grand Prix in Portimao following a late penalty from a dominant Francesco Bagnaia.

Bagnaia was sure to be a threat for the leading positions after leading the MotoGP field at the conclusion of Friday running by 0.340s, the factory Ducati racer recording a time just 0.117s down on Quartararo by the end of the opening runs in Q2.

He suffered a setback though as his lap was deleted due to a yellow flag infringement, meaning he sat 11^th with only the final runs remaining.

Quartararo meanwhile was lighting up the timesheets after heading both FP3 and FP3 prior to qualifying, the Yamaha pilot firing in a new MotoGP lap record for the Algarve International Circuit-a 1:38.862-on his closing gambit.

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With most of the front-running challengers having completed their efforts, Bagnaia looked to be the only man capable to denying Yamaha their first pole of the year.

The ’18 Moto2 world champion failed to disappoint his paymasters on his final do-or-die flyer, banging in a stunning 1:38.494 at the death to secure pole by 0.368 ahead of Quartararo.

Or so it seemed at the time, as Bagnaia saw his time removed once again for a yellow flag infringement, thus handing the pole to Quartararo.

Alex Rins made it three different constructors on the front row as he beat out championship leader Johann Zarco’s Pramac Ducati on his Suzuki.

Jack Miller threatened to go for pole at several points during the session but was never able to string together a lap strong enough to match his team-mate, the Aussie having to settle for fourth ahead of Petronas SRT’s Franco Morbidelli.

Marc Marquez’s remarkable racing comeback led him to an impressive sixth for the Portuguese GP despite having had to contest the preceding Q1 test, a session in which he posted the fastest time.

The Honda ace utilised a handy slipstream from reigning MotoGP world champion Joan Mir to record a 1:39.253s tour, his best of the weekend at that point.

Honda stable-mates Alex Marquez and Pol Espargaro were the closest challengers to Marquez and Mir’s continued progression to Q2, though ultimately neither could do enough and had to settle for 13^th and 14^th on the grid respectively.

Aleix Espargaro will start seventh for Aprilia ahead of an impressive Luca Marini, the Avintia rookie posting a time just over half-a-second down on Quartararo’s benchmark on his year-old Desmosedici.

Mir will line up ninth on the second Suzuki, while Miguel Oliveira had to make do with completing the top ten after crashing out while chasing an improved time late in the session.

Bagnaia fell to 11^th as a result of losing his best time just ahead of Maverick Vinales, who failed to set a time at all after falling victim to a track limits infringement on both his flying tours.

Valentino Rossi’s tough baptism with his new Petronas SRT outfit continued in Portugal as he could manage just 17^th on the grid, while Takaaki Nakagami elected to skip qualifying after suffering with extreme pain on his injured collarbone that he injured in FP2.

The LCR man is hoping to be back on track tomorrow morning in warm-up, but could join Jorge Martin in missing the encounter should the pain not subside sufficiently.