Lombok Tengah, The Indonesia Post – Fabio Quartararo claimed the pole position for the Indonesian Grand Prix race as well as setting a new record for the Pertamina Mandalika Circuit on Saturday.
The Monster Energy Yamaha rider recorded a best time of 1:31,067 to beat the Pramac Racing team duo Jorge Martin (+0.213) and Johann Zarco (0.311) who completed the front row starting position.
Quartararo’s record is 0.007 seconds away from the best lap of the pre-season session at Mandalika made by Pol Espargaro last month.
Brad Binder (KTM), Qatar GP champion Enea Bastianini (Gresini) will start the second series race on the calendar from the second row with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who must pass Q1 first.
Miguel Oliveira (KTM), Alex Rins (Suzuki) and Jack Miller (Ducati) occupy the third row.
Aleix Espargaro failed to improve his time because he fell in the last two minutes. The Aprilia racer will start from P10.
Meanwhile, Franco Morbidelli ended his efforts early following a terrible accident in the middle of the session. The Yamaha rider will start from P12 behind Fabio Di Giannantonio of the Gresini team.
After there was no improvement in the time record in FP3 with half-wet track conditions, surprisingly two world champions Marc Marquez and Joan Mir were also eliminated from the race for the top two slots in Q1.
Marquez struggled hard to find grip in the Q1 session when his bike lost grip on the tires while bulldozing the corner.
Marquez’s poor performance in the practice session was also caused because he had not found the right tire settings.
After several slides, Marquez suffered a lowside and crashed at Turn 13 with five minutes remaining before rushing back to the garage to change bikes and get back on track.
In his last attempt, Marquez tried to push hard but he crashed again for lowside again, this time at Turn 12, and vented his anger on the gravel.
Marquez will try to steal the gap to start his attack at Mandalika from P15 in front of his team-mate, Pol Espargaro.
Meanwhile Mir, who also fell on the last lap, will start from P18.
Gresini Racing’s Enea Bastianini is currently in control of the riders’ standings thanks to his maiden MotoGP victory when he took the top podium in Qatar.
Bastianini on a Ducati GP21 motorbike proved to be one of the serious threats to rivals after a promising start to the season.
Brad Binder took the podium in Qatar for the first time also for KTM in Lusail after finishing P2 ahead of a highly motivated Pol Espargaro following his fine form on the Honda RC213V since the start of the season.
The 27-round Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia will start at 15:00 WITA, Sunday. (ojn/bbs)
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