Qualifying

The feeling continued to be good on Saturday for Maverick Viñales on one of his strongest tracks of the calendar. After directly qualifying for the second time in a row to Q2, ‘Top Gun’ arrived with a positive state of mind to Super Saturday, and with the confidence from Friday’s pace. As Free Practice 2 kicked off MotoGP™ action in Doha, Maverick took the 6th fastest time of the session in 1'52.504 after the 12 final laps to prepare for the qualifying sessions. After the privilege of sitting through Q1, Maverick headed back on track at 16:05 local time (UTC+3) for the fight for pole number 4 at stake. As he launched for run 1 alongside Marquez brothers and co, the number 12 ended his first run with a best in 1’51.543, provisionally sitting in 7th 0.666 seconds from the top. As 5 minutes remained on the clock, Maverick headed back on track with the same group, Marquez brothers, Morbidelli and Binder, all looking for the wheel of Marc Marquez. At some point, the 93 cut his efforts, leaving Maverick with just one lap solo to try giving it all. A late 1’51.059 powered him to 6th, meaning that he will close the second row at the Tissot Sprint, and the main event on Sunday. On the other side of the pit box, there was Enea Bastianini still struggling to adapt his RC16 to the Qatari layout. He rode the 19th time in the morning’s Free Practice 2, before a qualifying session 1 during which we saw him completely lack feeling and confidence, as he appeared to struggle with the change of directions of his machine. The best of his first run was a 1'52.824 sitting him in last, but a small improvement in the second run with a 1'52.178 allowed him to gain 2 positions. The Italian will start both Tissot Sprint and main event from 20th on the grid.

Tissot Sprint

Lining up in 6th on row 2 for the first time with his KTM, there was Maverick Viñales who was one of the 8 riders to pick a soft rear tyre, while most of the grid was 100% in mediums. As lights were out at 20:00 local time (UTC+3) for 11 laps, Maverick kept his 6th place on the inside of turn number 1, before attacking Firmin Aldeguer ahead with a nice move to progress to 5th. Top Gun exited the first lap close in the back wheel of Franco Morbidelli, followed closely by Johann Zarco pressing charges. Ahead, Marquez brothers were making the show battling each other for the lead. In the next lap, Morbidelli moved ahead of Fabio Quartararo, leaving Maverick behind the Frenchman. Maverick’s pace was strong in the early laps, as he clocked in his fastest race lap on lap 4, to go battle it out for 4th against Quartataro. The number 20 held his ground. Unfortunately, we started seeing a drop in pace from lap 5 with the rear soft losing performance, while the other riders in full mediums were progressively coming back. Aldeguer quickly closed the gap on Viñales and moved past the Spaniard in sector 2 of lap 7. Shortly after, Fabio Di Giannantonio followed, leaving Maverick in 7th with 3 laps to go. It all became about survival for Top Gun, and trying to hold the pace as much as possible. Another three riders overtook him in the last laps, and Maverick saw the checkered flag in 10th, at the doors of his first sprint points. Starting from 20th on the last row, there was Enea Bastianini, the only KTM rider to go with the full mediums. As lights went out, Bestia kept his grid position to get up to speed for the first laps behind Jack Miller. Lap 3 was his fastest of the sprint, one that allowed the Italian to close on the Aussie, and move up to 17th in the next lap. He then quickly moved past World Champion Jorge Martin, to have Luca Marini next, 0.231 seconds ahead. From lap 6, we started seeing those with the rear soft dropping. It did not take too long for Bastianini to overtake both Brad Binder and Luca Marini to see the checkered flag in 13th. That’s another 7 positions gained for Bastianini, who will be looking forward to the long distance on Sunday. Don’t miss the main event of the Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar, at 20:00 UTC+3, for 22 laps.