Martin pole, Miller third despite crash in qualifying for Valencia MotoGP

Jorge Martin has taken the final pole position of the MotoGP season while Fabio Quartararo was the best of the title contenders by qualifying fourth-fastest at Valencia.

Martin (Prima Pramac Ducati) will share the front row with Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo), the latter of whom scored third on the grid despite a crash.

Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) hardly had an untroubled Saturday afternoon at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo but he starts four positions higher than championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo), who continues to struggle somewhat.

Martin blazed to a 1:29.621s on his first flying lap of Qualifying 2 and, as it turned out, no one would beat it.

Miller kicked things off with a 1:29.834s and, similarly, he ended up on the front row despite there being no subsequent improvement from the Queenslander, although that was in no small part because he dropped his Desmosedici at Turn 2 on his second run.

The only rider to go better than Miller during the closing stages was Marquez, jumping from ninth to second with a 1:29.826s.

There was concern for Quartararo when Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Ducati) crashed late in the session and therefore triggered a yellow flag at Turn 6, but the Yamaha pilot was clear of that and would move up to fourth with a 1:29.900s.

He then had an off at Turn 2 on his final lap, but had breached track limits exiting Turn 1 and hence the lap time would not have counted anyway.

‘El Diablo’ will share Row 2 with Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) and Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing), both of whom came from Qualifying 1, while Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) was seventh-fastest.

Bagnaia could only manage eighth on a 1:30.049s although he need only finish 14th on Sunday afternoon to guarantee himself the title whereas Quartararo must win the race to have any chance.

Zarco ended up ninth, from Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing), Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Ducati), and Joan Mir (Suzuki Ecstar), while Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) is set to start 13th after crashing late in Q1.

Remy Gardner qualified 20th for his final MotoGP race, at least for the foreseeable future, three positions ahead of Tech3 KTM team-mate Raul Fernandez.

The latter, though, is set to start 22nd given he is one of the beneficiaries of a grid penalty for Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu LCR Honda) for impeding Martin in Free Practice 3.

Race start is on Monday at 00:00 AEDT.

Qualifying: Valencia MotoGP

Note: Nakagami 3pos grid penalty