MotoGP rookie Jorge Martin was leading a Pramac Ducati 1-2 in a thrilling Doha Grand Prix qualifying when Valentino Rossi recorded his worst qualifying result in the Premier Class to date.
Pramac rookie Martin was one of Ducati’s earliest additions for the 2021 season last year. After a solid start to his MotoGP career at the Qatar GP, he set Johann Zarco 0.157 seconds for his first pole at the end of Saturday’s qualification.
The Spaniard set the early pace on his first Q2 appearance, the Ducati driver’s benchmark on his first lap was 1: 53.892 seconds.
This was quickly beaten by Petronas SRT’s Franco Morbidelli in a time of 1: 53.794 minutes, although Martin reclaimed first place on his following tour with a time of 1: 53.587 seconds.
Factory Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo led the charges against the rookie 0.017 seconds back as early runs came to an end while Qatar GP winner Maverick Vinales finished ninth and looked visibly frustrated with his performance.
But Vinales struck back emphatically on the first lap of his second run. The Yamaha rider took provisional pole position with a time of 1: 53.383 minutes.
The next time he went faster with a time of 1: 53.267 minutes, which should secure the pole position for him.
However, the timing screen was lit by Martin at the start of his final lap, while Zarco surprised with a time of 1: 53.263 minutes to steal Vinales’ provisional pole, which was only on the best personal sectors until the last split.
However, Martin kept his lap alive and produced a 1: 53.106 minutes to take a sensational pole in his second MotoGP outing.
Vinales completed the front row, while Jack Miller was only able to achieve fourth place on the Ducati factory team ahead of Quartararo and GP polisher Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) from Qatar.
Aleix Espargaro will be in seventh place at Aprilia. The Suzuki duo Alex Rins and world champion Joan Mir, who survived the first quarter, will complete the third row.
The fourth row is occupied by Morbidelli, Stefan Bradl from Honda and Miguel Oliveira, first quarter graduate, at the KTM factory.
Avintia newcomer Luca Marini was denied a seat by just 0.008 seconds in the second quarter after gluing his Ducati to the back of LCR’s Alex Marquez in the closing stages of the first quarter, finishing in 13th place.
Marquez was unable to roll out of his laps with Marini behind him and will compete in 14th place ahead of Honda colleague Pol Espargaro, who only had one real run after immediately abandoning his first attempt.
Takaaki Nakagami had canceled a lap late and fell back to 16th place on the sister LCR Honda, while early Q1 pacemaker Brad Binder shuffled back to 18th place on his KTM.
Avintias Enea Bastianini’s battles at the Doha GP continued in the first quarter, the Italian 19th ahead of Tech 3 KTM rider Iker Lecuona, while nine-time Grand Prix World Champion Valentino Rossi with his SRT Yamaha finished his worst 21st place Career qualified. Only Aprilia rookie Lorenzo Savadori was slower.