Marko Hanželic
Espargaro Pol has achieved his first pole position in his career, which is also the first for the Austrian manufacturer in MotoGP. In addition, he managed this on the home track in Spielberg. The Spaniard defeated his Honda rival in close qualifications Takaakiya Nakagamia in Johann Zarco from the team Avintia Ducati with the fastest time being 1: 23.580 minutes.
Fight for pole position it flared up as early as the beginning of Q2. Several drivers lined up at the top in the hottest conditions so far in Spielberg (air temperature was 31 degrees and asphalt 54 degrees Celsius). There were the best six before the scheduled stops in the pits within three tenths seconds.
He led for a long time Takaaki Nakagami (LCR-Honda) with a time of 1: 23.602 minutes, which lasted until the last five minutes of qualifying. They were after him Espargaro Pol (KTM) and fabio quartararo (Petronas Yamaha). But all three had one last attempt to change relationships at the top.
Espargaro Pol made the most of it. In his seventh round, he threw the Japanese from the top with a new best time. Nakagami he tried to answer, but it was too long in the first turn, so he had to settle for it in the end with another place.
zarco ranked third despite a wrist injury. By the pole position he had run out of everything 52 thousandths, but it doesn't do him much good for the race, because he will have to because of the penalty start from the pits. This means that the driver of the Suzuki team, Joan mir, moved to the first row. In qualifying, he finished fourth before Jack Miller, who, despite shoulder pain, was able to reach fifth place.
Johann Zarco, Valentino Rossi in Brad Binder they performed as early as Q1. As always, only the two fastest drivers were able to advance from this group to Q2. Taking the starting point for Zarcoja because of the punishment it didn’t matter anyway.
In the end, they progressed in Q2 Danilo Petrucci and already mentioned zarco. KTM men lined up behind them Binder in lecuona, Valentino Rossi, however, fell in an attempt to most likely beat the entire competition in Q1, and will start from a fourteenth position tomorrow.
