Pole for Miller in an anticipated Ducati celebration

In his last campaign in the Ducati ranks Jack Miller He can now present a new pole position in the list of winners, the winner this afternoon in Misano at the San Marino Grand Prix where he led the long-awaited celebration of the Ducatista before the future teammates from the box he will leave, Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini. It was his first pole position since Argentina 2018, which in the same conditions, was his second MotoGP.

And the mixed conditions in which the qualifying time was played in the queen category ended up playing against the two men leading the world championship Fabio Quartararo and Aleix Espargaró who would not even benefit from that penalty of three places on the grid being drawn of Bagnaia his bad head in FP1. Bagnaia will change his second to fifth, the Frenchman will start eighth and the Catalan ninth with a handicap of six Ducatis will be ahead of them for a long time in the race. Viñales was the best of the rest and will start fourth after finishing fifth in the ‘qualy’.

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Roots at the beginning of Q2

While Q1 was taking place, the drivers classified directly for Q2 were already out the garage door to inspect the conditions as soon as the marshals started waving the rain flags. The best information is available to Q1 drivers and team managers like Ducati Lenovo’s Davide Tardozzi who rushes out of the Mooney VR46 customer box to receive information from Q1 leader Bezzecchi. In the end they decided on a first reconnaissance round with a conservative election – scratched – at a time when the mist was constant, but did not go any further, and then the first turn for the slicks. Only Miguel Oliveira got out of the script, although it only served him to be the author of the first provisional pole, leaving Zarco, the first in the ‘rain’, 6 tenths behind.

Ducati Festival in mixed conditions

While others left time on that return to the pits to do the ‘flag to flag’, the Portuguese from KTM continued to gain confidence (1’37″332) and 2″ on Zarco. But Ducati soon began to break the clock with mixed conditions specialist Jack Miller, Marco Bezzecchi, who had gained confidence in Q1, and Enea Bastianini, the first to press those slicks as the track dried up. that in the last five minutes.

Only Maverick Viñales and Miguel Oliveira tried to avoid the top-5 Ducati coming at them. With 2’30” to go, Pecco Bagnaia emerged at the front (1’32” 413) in need of getting as high as possible in his suspension of the three places on the grid that await him for Sunday.

But things do not end here. Johann Zarco put in 1’32″201 which was almost surpassed by Maverick Viñales (he stayed at 0″090). The first to drop 1’31” was Miller (1’31″899), something Bagnaia also achieved, by 0″015, but in that last lap with the checkered flag there was still time for The Ducati top-4 with Miller, Bagnaia, Bastianini and Bezzecchi, Viñales in his fifth prevented him from being in the top-6 and Fabio Quartararo could not get past eighth place ahead of Aleix Espargaró. Alex Rins was twelfth.

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As feared by his rivals, in the end the penalty of three places on the grid will hardly influence Bagnaia who will start fifth on the second row ahead of them who will do so from third and ahead of the entire red army. In the end, due to the rain, the Aprilias and Quartararo who were ‘top’ in the race in FP4 did not benefit much, as they would have a tough battle with the Borgo Panigales.

Two more Ducatis through Q1

Through Q1, another two Ducatis, the Mooney VR46s of Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini, battled for pole, in a flurry before the rain flags waved, leaving the two other regulars on the grid, Jorge Martín -at 11 thousandths – and Fabio Di Giannantonio. 16th starts Àlex Márquez, who crashed, 19th Pol Espargaró and 25th and last Raúl Fernández.