Australian MotoGP: “Really special” Fabio Quartararo pole, “unreal” front row for Jack Miller

It was double delight for Yamaha in qualifying at the Australian MotoGP, with a flying Fabio Quartararo celebrating pole position and home hero Jack Miller on the front row.

Competitive on Friday, despite some ride-height release issues into Turn 1, Quartararo confirmed his speed with third on used tyres in final practice.

But beating Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, fastest on Friday and again on Saturday morning, seemed out of reach in qualifying.

Indeed, Quartararo was only tenth as he began his final lap, but pulled out more time attack magic to break Bezzecchi’s new lap record and claim a surprise fifth pole position of the year.

“Really nice. It was a long time since Assen!” Quartararo said of his pole position return.

“Today is a really special one because I didn't feel ready to make really a ‘26.4. The goal was to make 26.7. So I'm super happy.

“Also I think our pace is not so bad. So, focus on the sprint and let's try to make a great first lap, which will be really important.”

Marco Bezzecchi, who needs to serve two long lap penalties on Sunday, insisted he wasn’t disappointed to miss out on pole.

“I'm happy because the target was to reach the first two rows, as always, and we grabbed the first one, so it's even better,” said the Italian, who was held up by friends Francesco Bagnaia and Luca Marini on his first run.

“Of course, after yesterday, I was confident that I could do a good lap time. And fortunately, I confirmed myself similar to yesterday. The conditions were a bit more tough this morning, but the performance was good.

“So happy, and now we can focus on the sprint.”

But happiest of all was probably Jack Miller, who became the first Australian since Casey Stoner to start on the front row at Phillip Island.

“It's unreal!” said Miller. “Obviously, I was a bit disappointed with how yesterday afternoon went [13th]. But we put our heads down last night and were able to get the bike to where I needed it this morning.

“Thankfully, we had that dry time this morning… and it’s awesome! The Aussie fans are out here in numbers. It's unreal to see. 

“I'm looking forward to be back on the front row and, honestly, on a bike that we can fight with today and tomorrow.

“Let’s see what we can get, we’ll try and keep our nose clean. I've got my rear view mirrors on for Miller Corner! Hopefully we don't repeat that [2022 incident with Alex Marquez] and it should be a good day.”

While Yamaha claimed a first front row double since 2021, Ducati was absent from the top three for the first time since 2020.

With brother and new champion Marc Marquez absent due to injury, Alex Marquez was the top Desmosedici rider, in fifth, after suffering two accidents in Qualifying 2.

Fabio di Giannantonio, a close rival for Bezzecchi in race pace, could only qualify in tenth

“I was expecting much more from this Qualifying," said di Giannantonio. "It's a pity because we didn’t have good grip during my second time attack attempt, and that cost us the chance to improve. 

"We’ll analyse and try to understand what happened. We have good pace both for the Sprint and the main race. Unfortunately, we’re starting from the back, but we’ll try to fight our way back in both races."

Bagnaia and Binder grid penalties

di Giannantonio was one place ahead of Marc Marquez’s factory team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, on another GP25.

Worse was to follow for Bagnaia when he received a three-place grid penalty for the Bezzecchi incident, leaving him 14th for the Grand Prix. 

The same fate befell KTM's Brad Binder, who held up Johann Zarco in Qualifying 1, and now drops from 13th to 16th.

All riders are set to use the soft rear tyre for the Sprint, combined with the medium or hard front.

The likes of Quartararo are also tipped to run the soft in Sunday’s grand prix, which will now start an hour later than planned.