Fabio Quartararo takes Jerez pole position, second of 2021

Fabio Quartararo’s quest for a third MotoGP win in succession will begin from the perfect starting position as the 21 year-old secured pole at Jerez. 

Quartararo was fastest after the initial flurry of laps in Q2, and improved his already impressive 1m 36.8s time to set the best lap of the weekend so far with a 1:36.755s.

The battle for pole was similar to 2019 between former team-mates Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, but with the same outcome. 

It was a bizarre start to qualifying as a whole, as moments before Q1 began, Morbidelli’s top ten time in FP3 was rescinded for exceeding track limits - second time today. 

However, the Italian quickly put that behind him as he was fastest in the Q1 session and advanced with KTM’s Brad Binder. 

Third on the grid is Jack Miller who managed to pip the final front row starting position from team-mate Francesco Bagnaia. 

As was the case in FP3 when he topped the session, LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami was the fastest Honda rider as he finished fifth quickest. 

Aside from Stefan Bradl who automatically advanced with Nakagami this morning, neither Pol Espargaro, Marc Marquez, or brother Alex Marquez were able to join them in Q2, with the Repsol Honda pair starting 13th and 14th respectively. 

Marc Marquez was one of the riders affected by others running wide in front of him at the Jorge Lorenzo corner before starting their final laps in Q1 - therefore no one except Miguel Oliveira went faster. 

Former championship leader Johann Zarco was sixth fastest and third of the Ducati’s as he followed fellow countryman Quartararo on his final run to improve. 

Maverick Vinales has consistently been around two-to-three tenths away from his team-mate so far this weekend, which was the case once again as he finished +0.315s down. 

Rounding out the top ten was the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro in eighth, while Ecstar Suzuki riders Alex Rins and Joan Mir were ninth and tenth respectively.