Pramac’s Jorge Martin upstaged the works Ducatis – both of which crashed – to take the fourth pole of his MotoGP rookie season at the Valencia finale.
Martin and Jack Miller had been equal first early in Q2 having both set 1m30.325s laps.
But then Pecco Bagnaia blew the rest away with consecutive new benchmark laps of 1m30.118s and 1m30.000s as he chased his sixth straight pole.
He kept pushing for a third flying lap only to crash and bring out yellow flags that stymied most others’ laps.
Martin appears to have got through that sector before the yellows came out, and he produced a 1m29.936s to halt Bagnaia’s streak.
Miller also crashed on his final lap while looking set to improve.
But despite their falls, Bagnaia and Miller hold on to second and third on an all-Ducati front row.
Suzuki had another strong qualifying session – 2020 champion Joan Mir fourth and team-mate Alex Rins coming through from Q1 to sixth, split by Martin’s team-mate Johann Zarco.
Seventh-placed Brad Binder also progressed from Q1. He wasn’t just the only KTM rider in Q2, but the only one of its work pair anywhere near making it out of Q1.
Miguel Oliveira was slowest of all in qualifying, six tenths of a second away from Binder in Q1. The Tech3 KTMs of Iker Lecuona and Danilo Petrucci start 15th and 16th for the pair’s MotoGP farewells.
Newly-crowned champion Fabio Quartararo struggled again, down in eighth, three places ahead of Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli.
Valentino Rossi was straight into Q2 on practice pace for his final MotoGP start and went on to qualify 10th.
Takaaki Nakagami was best of the reduced Honda contingent in ninth for LCR.
After his superb Portimao performance last week, Nakagami’s team-mate Alex Marquez came back down to earth in miserable fashion as a Turn 2 crash in Q1 left him second-slowest.
Andrea Dovizioso secured the best qualifying result of his MotoGP comeback so far, putting the Petronas SRT Yamaha 13th on the grid and missing Q2 by just half a tenth.
There were no Repsol Hondas running in qualifying following Pol Espargaro’s vicious morning crash. It is not yet clear if he will be fit to race tomorrow.
Honda has elected not to replace Marc Marquez – absent for a second straight race as vision problems have followed his recent concussion – for the finale so Espargaro was due to represent the works team alone.
Despite Aleix Espargaro’s Friday rage, he did make it into Q2 for Aprilia via his Saturday morning pace but was slowest in the pole shootout.
VALENCIA MOTOGP, CIRCUIT RICARDO TORMO – FULL QUALIFYING RESULTS
| POS | RIDER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/DIFF | LAP | MAX |
| 1 | Jorge Martin | SPA | Pramac Ducati (GP21)* | 1’29.936s | 8/9 | 329k |
| 2 | Francesco Bagnaia | ITA | Ducati Team (GP21) | +0.064s | 7/8 | 326k |
| 3 | Jack Miller | AUS | Ducati Team (GP21) | +0.389s | 3/8 | 329k |
| 4 | Joan Mir | SPA | Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) | +0.459s | 7/9 | 326k |
| 5 | Johann Zarco | FRA | Pramac Ducati (GP21) | +0.482s | 7/9 | 329k |
| 6 | Alex Rins | SPA | Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) | +0.539s | 3/7 | 323k |
| 7 | Brad Binder | RSA | Red Bull KTM (RC16) | +0.573s | 5/7 | 324k |
| 8 | Fabio Quartararo | FRA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +0.684s | 3/8 | 321k |
| 9 | Takaaki Nakagami | JPN | LCR Honda (RC213V) | +0.708s | 7/9 | 323k |
| 10 | Valentino Rossi | ITA | Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +0.810s | 6/9 | 324k |
| 11 | Franco Morbidelli | ITA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +0.845s | 3/8 | 320k |
| 12 | Aleix Espargaro | SPA | Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) | +1.088s | 7/8 | 324k |
| Qualifying 1: | ||||||
| 13 | Andrea Dovizioso | ITA | Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1) | 1’30.859s | 7/9 | 317k |
| 14 | Maverick Vinales | SPA | Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) | 1’30.991s | 7/8 | 321k |
| 15 | Iker Lecuona | SPA | KTM Tech3 (RC16) | 1’30.994s | 7/9 | 326k |
| 16 | Danilo Petrucci | ITA | KTM Tech3 (RC16) | 1’31.045s | 7/9 | 317k |
| 17 | Luca Marini | ITA | Sky VR46 Avintia Ducati (GP19)* | 1’31.073s | 7/8 | 323k |
| 18 | Enea Bastianini | ITA | Avintia Ducati (GP19)* | 1’31.185s | 7/8 | 321k |
| 19 | Alex Marquez | SPA | LCR Honda (RC213V) | 1’31.251s | 4/7 | 327k |
| 20 | Miguel Oliveira | POR | Red Bull KTM (RC16) | 1’31.319s | 3/8 | 321k |
| Pol Espargaro | SPA | Repsol Honda (RC213V) | No Time | 0/0 | 0 |
