2021 MotoGP Round 14 Misano Qualifying

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MotoGP Qualifying Report

Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) remains the man to beat as the sun set on Saturday at the Gran Premio Octo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, with the Italian setting another all-time lap record to take pole position.

It’s Bagnaia’s third pole of the year and with team-mate Jack Miller in second, the first factory Ducati 1-2 in back to back Grands Prix.

To copy-paste the front row from MotorLand but with a seemingly pretty different race ahead, it’s Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) in third despite a crash for the Frenchman in Q2.

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MotoGP Rider Quotes

Francesco Bagnaia – P1

“I’m really delighted with this result! Again this weekend, we had to make only a few adjustments to the bike since I have felt comfortable on it right from the start. I wasn’t sure I could take pole in qualifying because Quartararo was going so fast, but I managed to set a great time! The team is doing a great job, and we were fast also in FP4, so I’m very optimistic heading into tomorrow’s race”.

Jack Miller – P2

“I’m thrilled with my result in qualifying today, and I was also surprised. My first attempt on the soft tyre didn’t go particularly well, and when I went out on the second one, I took the yellow flag on the first lap. I was nervous because I thought I didn’t have enough time to try again. Fortunately, I could get through before the chequered flag and finish the second lap with a very good time. Now we’ll have to work on the data we collected in FP4 to see where we can still improve, but in general, I’m confident for the race.”

Fabio Quartararo – P3

“I‘m perfectly okay after the crash. When you want pole position, you‘ll try anything. I was braking super late in Turn 1. I knew it was pole position or nothing, and unfortunately today it was nothing. But overall qualifying was good. I gave it a try. As always, our main goal was the front row and we got that. I‘m feeling okay, and our pace is really good compared to Aragon, there it wasn‘t so great. I think we‘ve done a really great job today. I‘m feeling ready for tomorrow. Of course, I hope for a dry race. My feeling in the dry is super good, so I want to keep going in that direction. We‘ll see what position I have after the first lap, and I will do my best. The race is long, so I‘ll be taking it step by step.”

Jorge Martín- P4

“Today has been a good day. To start from the second row will prove to be very important. I am regaining confidence on the bike and this will be fundamental – as it will be to start erll tomorrow and remain with the leading group.”

Johann Zarco – P5

“Today has been a good day. To start from the second row will prove to be very important. I am regaining confidence on the bike and this will be fundamental – as it will be to start erll tomorrow and remain with the leading group.”

Pol Espargaro – P6

“We had an interesting day and made the most of the dry track time today. We still have one or two things to confirm in Warm Up but I am satisfied overall today. Sixth position is good but our distance to Bagnaia is a bit too big for my liking. Tomorrow will be a hard race because Ducati look to have something extra here, but I think we can fight behind them in the race. It can be very difficult to overtake here so starting on the second row is really important. Let’s make a good start, fight and see what’s possible – tomorrow is a new day.”

Marc Marquez – P7

“I’m happy about today because in Free Practice 3 we found ourselves struggling a lot. Q1 is always really difficult but with HRC we made a really nice strategy, so I want to say thank you to HRC and Bradl because he was the guy to open the track. In Q2 I pushed again and I was able to make a good lap, I’m happy because I have been struggling at this circuit a lot. We are not very far from the top considering this.”

Aleix Espargaro – P8

“If it’s true that the 2021 RS-GP is performing well everywhere, this is a track where we have historically struggled a bit more. I don’t have the same feeling as Silverstone and Aragón, but I’m still satisfied with the level we have achieved. The hard front tyre betrayed me in qualifying. I usually feel pretty good on it, but it works in a rather tight temperature range. It only took letting it cool down a couple of degrees to crash. Third row is still a good starting point. I think that, apart from Pecco, there may be a group of riders with a similar pace. Weather permitting!”

Alex Rins – P9

“FP3 and FP4 went really well for me, I felt very good with the bike and my lap times were strong too. Tomorrow will be really unpredictable; it could be wet or dry or something in between! But we feel quite ready to fight, we’re on the third row and ninth is quite good – especially if it’s dry I feel pretty confident. I gave 100% during qualifying, but in the end we still struggle in this area and we’re far from pole. All the riders are close and we’ve seen a lot of crashes in these two days, so we will need to be careful. If it’s wet it becomes a lottery, but if it’s dry I think it could be an exciting fight.”

Maverick Vinales – P10

“We worked well again today, focusing on our goal of getting to know the bike and accumulating experience. Maybe just in qualifying I expected to be able to do better, but I obviously still need to understand how to take the RS-GP to the limit on the flying lap. In terms of pace, on the other hand, I had good sensations. I lapped in FP4 with a full tank and used tyres and I think that proper tyre wear management may be an important factor on this track. We’ll work in the warm-up session tomorrow as well, trying some new solutions. Every session is like a test for us.”

Joan Mir – P11

“Overall, today I’ve been competitive and riding hard. I felt strong, and even though things didn’t go to plan, I’m quite happy. Qualifying was a shame; we didn’t have the potential to fight for pole and we’re honestly quite far from that. I felt that the second row was possible, but then I had some trouble with the front on my first exit, then I saw a message on my dashboard right after I exited for the second run. I thought I should stop in case there was something wrong with the bike, and in the end this impacted my qualifying as well as the yellow flag on my last flying lap. There’s no point being frustrated; the focus now is on the race and I know I have good pace if I can get a strong start.”

Enea Bastianini – P12

“It’s important to be in Q2, although I could have done more. However, I didn’t feel as good as I did in Q1 and it was a shame because I’m sure we could have finished in the top 6. We have improved a lot throughout the weekend and the track conditions are constantly changing. I think if we keep going like this we can do well in the race.”

Takaaki Nakagami – P13

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it through to Q2 this afternoon. The qualifying session was good, I had good pace and the feeling on the bike was better, we were able to make a big step and improve the bike and I was confident. But I had a mistake in the qualifying session (Q1) and had a crash at turn 10 and that cost us quite a lot. We couldn’t make Q2 after that, but the positive thing is that the feeling on the bike is really, really good now, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race from P13. It wasn’t the result that I expected, but we have confidence on the bike, good pace for the race, so I’ll try my best and hopefully we can get a great result.”

Michele Pirro – P14

“I’m a little disappointed with the qualifying result. This morning, because of the yellow flags, we couldn’t get into Q2, which made everything a little bit complicated. In Q1, there was a lot of traffic, and I didn’t get through to the next session just a few tenths of a second. Anyway, I’m happy that we have two Ducatis starting on the front row and four of our bikes in the top five positions on the grid. I’ll do my best to try to finish our home race in the top ten.”

Luca Marini – P15

“Yesterday we struggled, but today we worked well and made a good step forward. I’m riding better even though we are still a little bit short in terms of set-up to be 100%. We are going in the right direction, maybe I could have done more in Q1 by putting the hard tyre on immediately. I went out for the first time attack on the medium to get more grip, but the hard tyre would probably have given me more stability. Let’s look at the data, the tyre choice for tomorrow is pretty much set and we’ll sort out the final details.”

Franco Morbidelli – P16

“I’m really happy and pleased about these two days. We are already trying to find a base set-up that I like on this bike, and we already could almost go directly into Q2 this morning, we were just two tenths shy of it. This afternoon in Q1 we tried again. We didn’t manage it. Finally we’re about 0.270s off the top 2 and ended in P6. This shows again the level of this category. But I’m really pleased with this performance. Looking at the situation I’m in right now, I need to be – and I am – happy.”

Brad Binder – P17

“It was a difficult day for us. We tried hard but couldn’t quite find the setting to be comfortable and to improve my feeling on the bike. I think we could have done better in qualifying but – unfortunately – I got a big rear-kick going into Turn 1 and I washed the front tire. We’re struggling a bit with one-lap pace, more than we’d like, but the race is tomorrow and we’ll try as hard to see what we can do.”

Stefan Bradl – P18

“Today was another positive day and I am pleased with the work we have done and the pace that I have been able to show. My team and I were able to help Honda with a few things and I am glad about this. This afternoon, and also tomorrow in the race, is all about enjoying riding and seeing what we can do. As everyone knows, the level in MotoGP is so high and everything is so close but I think we can have a good battle with some other riders. We also have the test on Tuesday and Wednesday which is the real focus for myself and the Test Team. Let’s keep the good weekend going.”

Álex Márquez – P19

“Second day here and we made a big improvement from yesterday in the dry in the morning. I still made some adjustments in the afternoon and in FP4 we did a really good job and I made another step forward and felt good. In the qualy (Q1) we were quite unlucky, I did a good lap time, a 32.4, and then later on I was going much faster – maybe not enough to get through to Q2, but close – and unfortunately there was a crash at turn 10 and a yellow flag, so that lap was cancelled. That was very unlucky, but that’s how it is sometimes and you have to accept it. So tomorrow I’m motivated to make a good start and, in the morning, we’ll try to improve in the final sector and then we’ll be ready for the race.”

Iker Lecuona – P20

“I don’t know what I need to improve, I have the feeling that I am on the limit. In FP3 I was a bit faster, but I still found it hard to go faster today. In Qualifying we improved a bit. Now we wait for the weather tomorrow. In case of rain, I think we can try to fight for a decent position, if it’s dry, our goal is to finish as the best KTM.”

Miguel Oliveira – P21

“A very tough qualifying. The team tried to give me some different bike settings so we could work to be faster but we couldn’t even match last year’s pace. So, tough times for us but we won’t give up and we’ll try the best we can for tomorrow’s race. We’ll keep fighting.”

Danilo Petrucci – P22

“A tricky weekend for us in general. The track is very bumpy and we struggle to find a good setup for our bike. We miss a lot of corner speed and can’t go as fast as we like. The weather seems to be a bit unpredictable tomorrow and to be honest, I hope it’s going to rain, because then we have a better chance for a good result, as we are struggling a lot in dry conditions.”

Valentino Rossi – P23

“I was optimistic for Q1 because I had done some good lap times on the used tyre in FP4, but it was difficult with the hard front tyre. It had better potential but when you are on the left side of it you are on the limit. The first lap wasn’t too bad, but I made a small mistake on the second lap and went wide in Turn 4. I then decided to do one more lap before changing the rear tyre, because I thought I could improve, but I had slowed down a little and the tyre was cold on the left, so I crashed in Turn 15. I don’t have a great position on the grid for tomorrow, but I think I can be a bit stronger than this. I’ll try to have a good start, make some overtakes and have a good race.”

Andrea Dovizioso – P24

“I’m not at a point yet where I can fully utilise the full potential of the bike, but I’m happy because I am getting closer and closer. This was our target, it’s what we have to do and now we aim to be fast enough to stay with the other riders in the race. We also need to understand as much as we can to prepare for next week’s test as best as we can. It was nice this morning because from the beginning of FP3 I felt a bit better with my position. Of course it’s not good to be starting from the back, but it’s normal in this situation, and we will try to be consistent throughout the whole race.”

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Q1

Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama) is on a good roll of form recently and the rookie topped Q1 on home turf, setting the fastest lap to head through ahead of eight-time World Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team). The number 23 unfortunately then slid out after the flag, but no harm done, although there was plenty of drama earlier in the session.

Sadly, Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT) slid out early as the ‘Doctor’ pushes for the penultimate time on home turf, and both Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) found and exceeded the limit.

On track it got close too, with Marc Marquez’ final run seeing the number 93 catch HRC test rider Stefan Bradl and lose a little time – the German also on a hot lap and entitled to keep pushing – and Bastianini also found himself tucked up behind Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol). In the end though, Bastianini remained unthreatened in first regardless, and Marc Marquez took that second spot in Q2.

Q2

Bagnaia left it relatively late but once again arrived on provisional pole in style. The Italian smashed in his new record with just under two minutes to go, slamming down the gauntlet. He already had the best race lap at Misano, so why not add the all-time lap record? Miller moved into second not long after that but couldn’t quite get in touch, with everything then left to Quartararo. Could the Frenchman do it?

He has done before with some Saturday heroics but this time wasn’t to be, as he suddenly slid out of contention and early in the lap too. The last likely challenger to Bagnaia’s cloud nine of a week so far had to bow out, rider ok but not able to improve from third.

There was also drama for Marc Marquez and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) as both crashed out – separately and in that order – losing the chance to move up the order in the latter minutes.

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The Grid

A Ducati 1-2 sees Bagnaia and Miller ready to prime those holeshot devices at Misano, with Quartararo on the outside of the front row. With Bagnaia’s pace looking mighty, the Frenchman will want to make sure he stays on the two Ducati Lenovo Team machines as a minimum at lights out.

El Diablo also finds himself with a Ducati armada behind as Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) slotted into fourth, top Independent Team rider just ahead of team-mate Johann Zarco, who continues to suffer arm pump issues but pulled a solid lap out the bag on Saturday.

Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) edged out teammate Marc Marquez in the end to complete the second row, with MM93 shuffled down to the head of Row 3. He’s joined by fellow Q2 crasher Aleix Espargaro, with the Aprilia rider losing out on P7 by just 0.002. it’s still the Noale factory’s best qualifying at Misano though. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) will start ninth after a step back forward at Misano.

Guess who’s tenth? Yep, it’s Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini). After going fastest on Friday and getting straight into Q2, his second weekend with the Noale factory is going well and he’ll line up there. He has reigning Champion Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) for company, the number 36 left frustrated after some miscommunication saw him box at the wrong time, with Bastianini the last of Q2 in P12.

Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), meanwhile, was provisionally up there early on in Q1 but ended up P16 as he gets back in action following surgery on his knee. The back row of the grid will also have some serious firepower as Rossi lines up alongside returning veteran Andrea Dovizioso, who continues to settle in at Petronas Yamaha SRT and on the YZR-M1.

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MotoGP Combined Qualifying Times

2021 MotoGP Standings

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Moto2

Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) keeps impressing and the rookie again took pole at the Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, the first since MM93 to take five or more in a rookie Moto2 season.

He’s joined by Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing) in second, with Lowes’ team-mate and man on form Augusto Fernandez taking third – back on the front row for the first time since 2019. Given his recent run of podiums, that could be a warning shot.

Remy Gardner heads row two alongside Aron Canet and Jorge Navarro.

Moto2 Combined Qualifying Times

Moto2 Championship Points Standings

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Moto3

Before summer break, Romano Fenati (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) hadn’t had a pole position since 2017. Now, he’s had three! The Italian put in a stunner on home turf to top qualifying at the Gran Premio Octo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini by two and a half tenths, now in the perfect position to bounce back from some bad luck last time out.

He’s joined by Aragon winner and key rival Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) in second, with Niccolo Antonelli (Avintia VR46 Academy) forced to settle for third by just 0.007.

Moto3 Combined Qualifying Times

Moto3 Championship Points Standings

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MotoE

Race 1 at Misano was a big one for the 2021 FIM Enel MotoE World Cup, with the crown at stake already – and certainly a hotseat in the standings for the final race of the season on Sunday. As the dust settles, it’s Jordi Torres (HP Pons 40) who emerges as the winner and the new points leader, with the Spaniard playing it to perfection in a wily last corner. Dominique Aegerter (Dynvolt Intact GP) was just pipped to it and was forced to settle for second after seeing off a late lunge from Eric Granado (ONE Energy Racing), with the Brazilian going in too hot and sliding out. Mattia Casadei (Ongetta SIC58 Squadra Corse), meanwhile, rounded out the podium after an impressive return to action.

There was drama from the off as points leader going in, Alessandro Zaccone (Octo Pramac MotoE), crashed early on Lap 1, out of contention and also taken to the medical centre after the Italian suffered post-crash contact from Hikari Okubo (Avant Ajo MotoE). Zaccone was then transferred to hospital for further checks and was found to have an iliac wing fracture in his pelvis. He’s unfit, so will sit out Race 2, and everyone at the FIM Enel MotoE™ World Cup wishes him a quick recovery.

As Zaccone sadly lost his chance to fight for the crown, that battle raged on at the front and was getting tight. Torres had made a great start, joined in a breakaway group by Casadei, Aegerter and Granado, the latter making up some ground, as the four bolted just over a second free of Matteo Ferrari (Indonesian E-Racing Gresini MotoE). The pace was hot and the elbows out, with some stunning moves and certainly a scare for Torres as the Spaniard just clipped the rear wheel of Aegerter. But no harm done, and he slotted back in.

As the final sector of the final lap dawned, Aegerter was holding on in the lead as he put on another masterclass in door-closing, but Granado was close and Torres too. And Granado went for it right at the final corner, all-in and briefly edging ahead. But then hit the heartbreak as the Brazilian slid out, losing a key chance to gain big in the standings.

The attack left Aegerter slightly on the back foot and Torres capitalised to perfection, sweeping past and just able to beat the Swiss rider to the line. For the reigning Cup winner it’s the first victory of the season and it couldn’t have come at a better time, seeing him head into Sunday eight points clear of Aegerter at the top.

Casadei completed the podium after an impressive return for the final round, with Ferrari then classified fourth as he found his podium record at Misano take a dent. He was followed by rookie Miquel Pons (LCR E-Team). The final positions in the top 10 went to Kevin Zannoni (LCR E-Team); an impressive best yet, Fermín Aldeguer (OpenBank Aspar Team), Lukas Tulovic (Tech3 E-Racing), Yonny Hernández (Octo Pramac MotoE) and Xavi Cardelús (Avintia Esponsorama Racing).

It’s now eight points in it between Torres and Aegerter, with Zaccone a further nine behind the Swiss rider and sidelined too. Granado remains in contention, just, but now 24 off the top. Race 2 will see the grid do battle for the final time in 2021, and that could all shuffle again.

MotoE Race One

MotoE Combined Qualifying Times

MotoE Championship Points Standings

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2021 MotoGP Round Five Misano Schedule (AEST)

2021 FIM MotoGP World Championship calendar

Source: MCNews.com.au