Vinales dominates to Australian MotoGP pole position

Full Australian MotoGP qualifying results at Phillip Island

Maverick Vinales might have been forced to wait an extra day to confirm pole position at Phillip Island but it didn’t stop the Monster Yamaha rider controlling in qualifying ahead of Petronas Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

Vinales dominates to Australian MotoGP pole position

Full Australian MotoGP qualifying results at Phillip Island

Maverick Vinales might have been forced to wait an extra day to confirm pole position at Phillip Island but it didn’t stop the Monster Yamaha rider controlling in qualifying ahead of Petronas Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

The Spanish rider produced a handful of fastest laps to take his third pole position of the season with a 1m 28.492s over half a second ahead of Quartararo.

Qualifying was delayed until Sunday morning due to strong winds which forced MotoGP action to be postponed midway through FP4 on Saturday. Vinales had been on provisional pole thanks to topping the combined free practice results and duly displayed his dominance in Sunday’s qualifying held in cold, but vitally calmer, weather conditions.

Quartararo will be content with second place having ended Friday nursing a painful lower left leg injury after an FP1 off.

Marc Marquez completes the front row for Repsol Honda despite losing a chance to attack on his final lap when he ran on at the high-speed Turn 1 when he made another dramatic save.

Valentino Rossi enjoyed his best qualifying for a long time with fourth place for Monster Yamaha ahead of leading Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci as Cal Crutchlow rounded out the second row for LCR Honda.

Aprilia pair Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone both impressed with seventh and eighth respectively in qualifying ahead of home favourite Jack Miller in ninth place for Pramac Ducati.

Andrea Dovizioso could only manage 10th place in qualifying for Ducati and will be joined on row four by Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli and Suzuki’s Alex Rins.

It turned into a frustrating qualifying for the second Suzuki of Joan Mir as he narrowly missed out on the top two spots to Quartararo and Iannone in Q1 meaning he will line up for the Australian MotoGP from 13th place on the grid.

Johann Zarco, standing in for Takaak Nakagami at LCR Honda who has undergone shoulder surgery and will miss the remainder of the season, impressed again on his debut in the 2018-specification RC213V to take 14th in qualifying ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and Avintia Ducati’s Karel Abraham.

But it was a disastrous qualifying for Zarco’s former team as Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro could only reach 17th place in front of team-mate Mika Kallio who crashed out unhurt late on at Turn 1.

Jorge Lorenzo’s struggles for Repsol Honda continued down in 19th place only ahead of Hafizh Syahrin on the Tech3 KTM, with the Malaysian rider crashing at Turn 2 on his final lap, with Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat qualifying in last place.

Miguel Oliveira will miss the Australian GP for Tech3 KTM nursing a hand injury sustained in FP4 when he was blown off track at Turn 1.

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