MotoGP: Martin uses Ducati power to take pole in Qatar

You can’t beat Ducati horsepower in MotoGP.

Jorge Martin stormed to a phenomenal first pole position of the season under the glorious Grand Prix of Qatar lights, the 2021 Rookie of the Year beating Enea Bastianini by 0.147s with a 1:53.011 to give Ducati power a 1-2.

Eight-time World Champion Marc Marquez lines up on the front row in P3 for Honda.

Marquez returns to the front row of the grid for the first time since the 2021 Americas GP, where he also qualified third. 2013, his rookie season in the premier class, was the only occasion that Marquez has missed starting on the front row of the grid while racing in Qatar. Having put together a productive Free Practice 4, Marquez and his team have a good indication of what to expect on Sunday when the lights go out and will use Saturday evening and Sunday’s Warm Up to confirm a few final points. The #93 is no stranger to close racing under the floodlights and is ready to do it all again tomorrow.

“It’s important to start in the front two rows of the grid and this was the goal for today,” said Marquez.

“Qatar is not one of the best circuits for my style but thanks to a step we made in Free Practice 4 I have been feeling better. I’m happy but tomorrow is the most important day and we are not the fastest guy out there at the moment. Of course there’s still time to work and we will try to manage everything well. Our FP4 pace is close and the track can change a lot here with the wind, the sand and humidity. Let’s see what happens on Sunday, I am excited!”

Top-3 in qualifying, L to R: Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez. Photo courtesy of Repsol Honda team.

Qualifying Results

Pos	No	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap	Interval
1	89	Jorge Martin	Ducati	1’53.011	0.000	0.000
2	23	Enea Bastianini	Ducati	1’53.158	0.147	0.147
3	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1’53.283	0.272	0.125
4	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1’53.298	0.287	0.015
5	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1’53.319	0.308	0.021
6	44	Pol Espargaro	Honda	1’53.346	0.335	0.027
7	33	Brad Binder	KTM	1’53.350	0.339	0.004
8	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1’53.407	0.396	0.057
9	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1’53.411	0.400	0.004
10	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1’53.481	0.470	0.070
11	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	1’53.635	0.624	0.154
12	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	1’53.982	0.971	0.347
Q1 Times
13	5	Johann Zarco	Ducati	1’53.780	0.268	0.126
14	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	1’53.819	0.307	0.039
15	72	Marco Bezzecchi	Ducati	1’53.915	0.403	0.096
16	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1’54.038	0.526	0.123
17	10	Luca Marini	Ducati	1’54.222	0.710	0.184
18	73	Alex Marquez	Honda	1’54.224	0.712	0.002
19	12	Maverick Viñales	Aprilia	1’54.228	0.716	0.004
20	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Yamaha	1’54.244	0.732	0.016
21	49	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Ducati	1’54.276	0.764	0.032
22	87	Remy Gardner	KTM	1’54.378	0.866	0.102
23	25	Raúl Fernández	KTM	1’54.889	1.377	0.511
24	40	Darryn Binder	Yamaha	1’56.011	2.499	1.122