Miller takes pole in wet-dry Misano MotoGP qualifying

Jack Miller has taken the second pole position of his MotoGP career in a weather-affected qualifying session at the San Marino Grand Prix.

The Ducati Lenovo Team rider beat team-mate Francesco Bagnaia to top spot by just 0.015s although the latter will be starting fifth owing to a three-position grid penalty he incurred in Friday practice.

Six of the top seven qualifiers were on Ducatis, with championship leader Fabio Quartararo eighth on his Monster Energy Yamaha, one spot up on his nearest rival in the riders’ standings, Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro.

Light rain began to fall again at the end of Qualifying 1, at a fortuitous time for Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Ducati), and 10 of the 12 riders who made it through to Qualifying 2 started on wet Michelin tyres.

However, the shower was not heavy enough to sustain wets and all of those 10 were back in the pits to swap to their dry-weather bike if not immediately, then certainly after just one flying lap.

Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM) had been an early pace-setter with a 1:37.332s on the Michelin slicks on which he started the session, but times would tumble throughout the 15-minute hit-out.

Miller punched out a 1:31.899s in the last minute before the chequered flag to go top for a fourth time, and he would not be bettered again.

Bagnaia came close to doing so, with a 1:31.914s on his final lap, while Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) also made it onto the front row by finishing with a 1:32.014s.

In fact, only three of those dozen riders, Miller included, did not register an improvement on their last lap.

Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Ducati), who topped Q1, was fourth-fastest in the end on a 1:32.048s and hence will start from the front row.

Fifth went to Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) on a 1:32.118s, from Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Ducati) on a 1:32.169s.

Marini claimed seventh on a 1:32.226s, from Quartararo on a 1:32.246s and Espargaro on a 1:32.577s, while Row 4 will be made up of Oliveira, Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha), and Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar).

Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Ducati) was the biggest name to miss Q2 and is set to start from 13th, while first of the Honda contingent was Alex Marquez (Castrol LCR Honda) in 16th.

Remy Gardner and Tech3 KTM team-mate Raul Fernandez qualified bottom two in the 25-strong field.

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

Qualifying: San Marino MotoGP