Quartararo pips Vinales to pole, Marquez qualifies third for Spanish Grand Prix
Fabio Quartararo pipped Maverick Vinales to pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix, with reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez qualifying third.
In the season-opening event, Petronas Yamaha rider Quartararo produced an all-time lap record of one minute, 36.705 seconds on his final attempt in Q2 to ensure he will start a second straight race in Jerez from the front of the grid.
The 21-year-old, who was named Rookie of the Year in 2019, is riding a factory-spec Yamaha this season and he steered it to the seventh pole position of his career on Saturday.
Quartararo will now hope to convert it into a first race win in the premier class, having finished second on five occasions in the previous campaign.
He said: "It was just I managed to switch off on the last lap. I didn't feel that was the perfect lap, someone crashed at turn 11 so I tried to be a bit more careful.
"We worked really well in FP4. The pace is good. Tomorrow morning we will try to make something more and we are ready to fight."
Your first #MotoGP pole-man of 2020!
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) July 18, 2020
@FabioQ20 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/ltaoxJ2V2M
Marquez had provisional pole with two minutes of the session remaining but he was displaced by Vinales, while a shoddy final sector on his last attempt saw the Repsol Honda rider – who avoided punishment over an incident with Alex Rins in FP3 – remain where he was.
Pramac Racing's Francesco Bagnaia sent Quartararo down to fourth, but the Frenchman pulled out a stunning final lap to snatch pole position from his future Monster Energy Yamaha team-mate Vinales.
Rins' status for Sunday appeared in doubt following a crash at turn 11, with the Suzuki Ecstar rider hobbling away holding his arm before being taken to the medical tent.
Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) also slid out on their final laps. They will start in fifth and eighth respectively.
Valentino Rossi will begin the race in 11th, while Marc Marquez's brother and new team-mate Alex, the Moto2 champion last year, was unable to get out of Q1 and qualified 21st.
PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION
1. Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha) 1:36.705
2. Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha) +0.139s
3. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) +0.157s
4. Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) +0.250s
5. Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) +0.748s
6. Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) +0.749s
7. Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM) +0.788s
8. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) +0.830s
9. Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) +0.931s
10. Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha) +0.969s