Valencia MotoGP, Circuit Ricardo Tormo - Full Qualifying Results

Full Qualifying results and grid line-up for the Valencia MotoGP at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, the 18th and final round of the 2021 world championship.

Peter McLaren

13 Nov 2021

Jorge Martin Valencia MotoGP, 13 November 2021
© Gold and Goose Photography

Jorge Martin ends his rookie MotoGP season with pole position for the 2021 Valencia finale, as the factory Ducatis of Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller both fall at the end of qualifying.

Bagnaia was holding pole when he slid off at the Turn 2 hairpin, just before Martin snatched P1 and then Miller - the only rider on the medium rather than hard front tyre and also challenging for pole - went down at Turn 11.

Suzuki's Joan Mir was the only non-Ducati in the top five, with Brad Binder in seventh for KTM and new world champion Fabio Quartararo eighth for Yamaha.

Valentino Rossi, whose legendary MotoGP career reaches its conclusion this weekend, will start his final grand prix from tenth on the grid.

The Italian had delighted his fans by claiming direct Qualifying 2 access, with the aid of a tow from VR46 protegee Bagnaia this morning. The pair then began qualifying together but Rossi's hopes of a tow ended when he ran wide at Turn 1 while tucked in behind the Ducati.

Rossi tried again behind Bagnaia as they left the pits for The Doctor's last MotoGP qualifying run. This time Rossi was more cautious at Turn 1 but struggled to stay in the wheeltracks of the Ducati as Bagnaia shot to the top.

Nonetheless, Rossi briefly moved to seventh on what would be his best lap, before others improved in the final minutes.

Sunday will also be the last grand prix for Danilo Petrucci (switching to the Dakar) and Iker Lecuona (moving to WorldSBK).

Pol Espargaro, Repsol Honda's only rider this weekend after the withdraw of Marc Marquez and second fastest on Friday, missed the afternoon sessions and is in doubt for Sunday after heading to hospital for further scans following this morning's huge Turn 13 highside, which left the Spaniard with pain in his ribs.

Team-mate Marquez is missing his second event in a row due to vision problems triggered by a training accident and won't be back on a MotoGP bike until 2022.

While the riders' (Fabio Quartararo) and constructors' (Ducati) world championship have already been decided, Ducati Lenovo holds a 28-point lead (maximum of 45 points still available) over Monster Yamaha for the teams' title…

Valencia MotoGP, Circuit Ricardo Tormo - Full Qualifying Results
Pos	Rider	Nat	Team	Time/Diff	Lap	Max
1	Jorge Martin	SPA	Pramac Ducati (GP21)*	1'29.936s	8/9	329k
2	Francesco Bagnaia	ITA	Ducati Team (GP21)	+0.064s	7/8	326k
3	Jack Miller	AUS	Ducati Team (GP21)	+0.389s	3/8	329k
4	Joan Mir	SPA	Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)	+0.459s	7/9	326k
5	Johann Zarco	FRA	Pramac Ducati (GP21)	+0.482s	7/9	329k
6	Alex Rins	SPA	Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)	+0.539s	3/7	323k
7	Brad Binder	RSA	Red Bull KTM (RC16)	+0.573s	5/7	324k
8	Fabio Quartararo	FRA	Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1)	+0.684s	3/8	321k
9	Takaaki Nakagami	JPN	LCR Honda (RC213V)	+0.708s	7/9	323k
10	Valentino Rossi	ITA	Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1)	+0.810s	6/9	324k
11	Franco Morbidelli	ITA	Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1)	+0.845s	3/8	320k
12	Aleix Espargaro	SPA	Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)	+1.088s	7/8	324k
	Qualifying 1:
13	Andrea Dovizioso	ITA	Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1)	1'30.859s	7/9	317k
14	Maverick Viñales	SPA	Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)	1'30.991s	7/8	321k
15	Iker Lecuona	SPA	KTM Tech3 (RC16)	1'30.994s	7/9	326k
16	Danilo Petrucci	ITA	KTM Tech3 (RC16)	1'31.045s	7/9	317k
17	Luca Marini	ITA	Sky VR46 Avintia Ducati (GP19)*	1'31.073s	7/8	323k
18	Enea Bastianini	ITA	Avintia Ducati (GP19)*	1'31.185s	7/8	321k
19	Alex Marquez	SPA	LCR Honda (RC213V)	1'31.251s	4/7	327k
20	Miguel Oliveira	POR	Red Bull KTM (RC16)	1'31.319s	3/8	321k
	Pol Espargaro	SPA	Repsol Honda (RC213V)	No Time	0/0	0

* Rookie
Official Valencia MotoGP records:
Best lap:
Marc Marquez SPA Honda 1m 31.116s (2019)
Fastest race lap:
Jorge Lorenzo SPA Yamaha 1m 29.401s (2016)

By Peter McLaren