Johann Zarco set a new pole record on his way to getting pole position for tomorrow’s opening race of the MotoGP world championship.
The Frenchman put in a sensational lap to top the timesheets at the death, beating out more established riders by 0.202 seconds to start from pole tomorrow.
Even Marc Marquez couldn’t beat Zarco. The Repsol Honda rider will start from second place for tomorrow’s race, alongside Danilo Petrucci, who will start third.
Britain’s Cal Crutchlow will start from fourth place, with Andrea Dovizioso starting sixth and Alex Rins starting seventh. The third row will be headed by Dani Pedrosa, who will start from eighth.
The factory Yamaha’s woes continue, with Valentino Rossi starting down in ninth. Rossi’s teammate Vinales will start from twelfth, finishing last in Q2 after making it through just from Q1.
The fastest man from Q1, Jack Miller, will line up on the grid tenth tomorrow. The Australian will start ahead of Andrea Iannone and Vinales.
The stars of Q1 were the rookies of Franco Morbidelli and Hafizh Syahrin. The former Moto2 riders really impressed, and will start from 14th and 15th place tomorrow.
The race in Qatar gets underway at 16:00 BST under the the lights of the Losail circuit.
