Quartararo stuns for historic pole in Petronas Yamaha 1-2!

Full qualifying results for the Spanish MotoGP

Fabio Quartararo has bolted clear of the MotoGP world title fighters to take a maiden premier class pole position, as Petronas Yamaha seals a historic 1-2 in qualifying with Franco Morbidelli lining up second ahead of Marc Marquez.

The French rider, in just his fourth MotoGP round, has stormed to pole position with a new lap record at Jerez with a 1m 36.880s to beat Marquez’s provisional top time which stood at 1m 36.970s.

During the final runs in Q2 nobody could match the 20-year-old’s stunning time which means he makes history as the youngest-ever MotoGP pole-sitter, while he also becomes the first rookie pole-sitter since Johann Zarco achieved the feat at Assen in 2017.

Petronas Yamaha enjoyed the perfect qualifying with Morbidelli slotting into second place just 0.082s behind his team-mate to edge in front of Marquez, with the Repsol Honda rider having to abort his final fast lap after almost coming off.

Andrea Dovizioso lines up on the front of the second row on the factory Ducati ahead of Monster Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, who progressed through Q1, with LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow taking sixth place.

Danilo Petrucci, fastest rider from Friday practice, looked the biggest threat to Quartararo’s pole on his final run but lost out in the final two sectors before catching the chequered flag meaning he couldn’t put in one last lap. To make matters worse for the Italian he crashed immediately after taking the chequered flag at Turn 1.

It means Petrucci will line up from seventh place and is joined on row three by Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) and Alex Rins (Suzuki).

The second Q1 graduate Francesco Bagnaia qualifies 10th for Pramac Ducati ahead of Jorge Lorenzo, who endured a frustrating birthday for Repsol Honda crashing on his final lap at Turn 2, but the five-time world champion did qualify ahead of Suzuki’s Joan Mir.

Valentino Rossi became the unlucky 13th-placed rider as he missed out in Q1 by 0.072s to Bagnaia as his Monster Yamaha team-mate Vinales led the first qualifying session.

Honda wildcard rider Stefan Bradl lines up in an impressive 14th place ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller who has continued to struggle at Jerez this weekend following on from his podium finish last time out at Circuit of the Americas.

Aleix Espargaro heads up row six in 16th place for Aprilia, directly in front of brother Pol Espargaro on the Red Bull KTM, with Zarco one place further back.

Aprilia wildcard entry Bradley Smith shook off a nasty FP2 high-side to take 19th place ahead of Avintia Ducati duo Tito Rabat and Karel Abraham.

Red Bull KTM Tech 3 pair Miguel Oliveira and Hafizh Syahrin continue to suffer at Jerez and qualify on the final row, with the Malaysian rider over one second slower than his Portuguese team-mate.

Andrea Iannone missed qualifying after suffering a heavy fall during FP4. The Aprilia rider was stretchered off track and taken to the medical centre for x-rays on his left foot.