Luca Marini scored a first-ever MotoGP pole position in Indonesia as series leader Francesco Bagnaia failed to escape Q1, and will start a lowly 13th for both races.
Marini was a man on a mission on Saturday morning as he endeavored to escape Q1 having struggled slightly during Friday practice, the Italian firing in a late improvement in the opening segment of qualifying to top the session in the end to secure the first of the spots in the pole shootout.
The big shock though was Bagnaia, who once again failed to find a comfortable feeling with his Ducati under braking at the Mandalika International Circuit and was knocked out. Factory Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini was the man to strike the final blow, his final lap just enough to edge clear to secure the final spot in Q2.
This means Bagnaia will start 13th for both the sprint race and Sunday’s Indonesian Grand Prix, allowing title rival Jorge Martin a free run at grabbing the points lead by the end of Saturday.
Marini meanwhile took a while to get going once the pole shootout got underway, the VR46 Ducati racer initially failing to post a time as Aprilia duo Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales dominated proceedings once again as they sat 1-2 by the end of the opening runs.
Espargaro improved his opening gambit to a 1:30.303s as the clock ticked down on the test to strengthen his grip on pole, though Vinales swiftly smashed this effort with a 1:30.009s to move into the provisional pole position.
Marini though stole Aprilia’s thunder as he stitched together a clean tour to bang in a 1:29.978s, a time good enough to secure him his maiden premier class pole by just 0.031s ahead of Vinales.
This came just a couple of weeks after sustaining a broken collarbone which ruled him out of the Japanese GP.
Espargaro meanwhile had to make do with completing the front row in third, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo enjoying a competitive session to claim fourth – albeit 0.538s adrift of Marini’s benchmark.
Brad Binder completed the top five for KTM, while Martin could only manage sixth after an early crash curtailed his session.
The Pramac Ducati man got caught out by the aggressive serrated curbs on the outside of Turn 16 early on, the Spaniard losing the front of his machine and sliding along the tarmac. This came just moments as the second VR46 entry of Marco Bezzecchi did the same thing.
He quickly got back out on his spare bike, though his session was ultimately made trickier still after he lost his second fast lap due to yellow flags being shown for Marc Marquez dropping his Honda. Fortunately for Martin, his first lap was good enough to keep him sixth, well clear of rival Bagnaia for both encounters.
Fabio Di Gianantonio continued to perform strongly on the sole Gresini Ducati this weekend to take seventh ahead of Marquez, while Bezzecchi ended up ninth.
Jack Miller completed the top ten on the sister factory KTM, while Bastianini and RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira rounded off the Q2 runners.
Johann Zarco meanwhile continued to lack confidence with his Pramac Ducati as he could secure only 14th in qualifying, the Frenchman suffering a crash at the end of Q1 to compound his problems.
Raul Fernandez saw his recent Q2 run end with 17th on Saturday morning at Mandalika, the RNF man splitting GasGas duo Pol Espargaro and Augusto Fernandez in 16th and 18th respectively.
Joan Mir also failed to make much headway, the Honda rider managing only 19th on the grid ahead of LCR Honda duo Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Rins.
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