Bastianini pole, Miller third in Ducati lockout at Austrian MotoGP

Gresini Racing’s Enea Bastianini has claimed his first MotoGP pole position in a Ducati front row lockout at the Austrian MotoGP.

Just 0.024s separated Bastianini and the Ducati Lenovo Team’s Francesco Bagnaia at the end of Qualifying 2 at the Red Bull Ring, with Jack Miller also making the front row at 0.109s off the pace on the other factory entry.

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo qualified on the middle of the second row on his Monster Energy Yamaha while his nearest rival for the title, Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro, came from Qualifying 1 to claim ninth on the starting grid all-told.

Miller was quickest at the end of the first runs in Q2 on a 1:28.898s, the fastest lap to that point on the Spielberg circuit’s new layout, which now includes the Turn 2A/Turn 2B chicane.

Bagnaia did not have a time to his name after an off at said chicane, but climbed to second spot with a 1:28.999s at the start of his second run, then took over provisional pole with a 1:28.796s next time through.

With the chequered flag out, Bastianini blazed to a 1:28.772s while Miller consolidated his hold on a top three berth when he improved to a 1:28.881s

It will in fact be five Ducatis in the top six when the field grids up on Sunday afternoon (local time), with Prima Pramac Racing team-mates Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco clocking personal-best times of 1:28.958s and 1:29.046s respectively.

Splitting the purple and white Desmosedicis will be the black and blue YZR-M1 of Quartararo, who, like Bagnaia, had a messy first run but threw everything into setting a 1:29.003s on his second.

Row 3 will be headed up by Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing), from Joan Mir (Suzuki Ecstar) and Espargaro.

The latter clocked a 1:29.032s on his first run but it was scrubbed for the slightest of track limits breaches, which had the effect of costing him three positions given his next-best time of the session would be a 1:29.255s on the preceding lap.

That time was in fact identical to Mir’s best, but Espargaro lost out on the tie-break of respective second-fastest lap times.

Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati) also came from Q1 to take 10th in the end, ahead of Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) and Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM).

Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Ducati) and Alex Marquez (Castrol LCR Honda) both crashed during Q1 at Turn 2B and are set to line up 20th and 25th respectively in the 25-strong field.

Remy Gardner ended up 22nd overall, one position and 0.078s up on Tech3 KTM team-mate Raul Fernandez.

Race start is scheduled for Sunday at 22:00 AEST.

Qualifying: Austrian MotoGP