“Impossible to see” yellow flags costing the MotoGP pole

With his last Q2 lap of 1: 38.494 minutes, Bagnaia was four tenths away from the field, which broke the existing lap record of the Algarve International Circuit and would have secured his second pole in three laps.

Bagnaia, who took his first MotoGP pole at the Qatar GP at the opening of the 2021 season, drove this lap through a zone with a yellow flag when KTM’s Miguel Oliveira crashed at Turn 9 against the fast left-handed Craig Jones.

This resulted in Bagnaia’s lap being canceled and he fell from pole to 11th place while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo moved up to first place.

MotoGP will now use LED light panels in the Algarve and on all circuits, but the yellow flag was to the right of Bagnaia and not visible when his body hung over the left side of his Ducati.

When asked if the positioning of the marshal’s post was a problem, Bagnaia said, “Yes, sure, because you are coming from the exit and the yellow flag was on the right.

“I already leaned on the corner and prepared for the corner so I couldn’t see my side.

“[Luca] Marini, who was behind me, told me the same thing. He didn’t see the yellow flags either, so it was impossible.

“But in any case, this is a rule and we must obey it. The problem was in the 15 minutes [for qualifying] I saw that I had canceled two rounds on the two attempts I tried, so it was better to stay in the box and look at the others.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“The good thing is that I do [would have] I took pole position with an incredible lap today and then my pace was really strong.

“In RP4 I was fast and very close to Quartararo, who had new tires. So my pace is good and I’ll try to restore these positions tomorrow. It’s going to be difficult, but I’ll try. “

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The Doha GP winner Quartararo then inherited his eleventh MotoGP pole career, but admits that it doesn’t “taste” like his others.

“The taste of this pole position is not exactly the same as the others, but the most important thing was to start from the front row and reach our goal,” said the Frenchman.

“But most of all this morning’s pace was on old tires, including testing the tires in the afternoon, the pace was great and with used tires I was able to push a little more this morning.

“But we wanted to be more on the safe side of the tire and it was great. I am very happy with the speed and the work of the team. “