It’s going to be tough on Sunday! Pole position for Martin, Quartarara and Bagnaia share 4 places on the grid. How did qualifying in Valencia go?

Great qualifying in Valencia! The MotoGP royalty is in Valencia this weekend for its last round of the season to decide who will win the championship. Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix was won by Jorge Martin on the Pramac, with Marc Márquez and Jack Miller taking the front row.

Francesco Bagnaia vs. Fabio Quartararo or who will win the world title? That’s the question we’ll know the answer to after Sunday’s Valencia Grand Prix, although something very unexpected would have to happen for the latter to defend his title from last year.

The Ducati rider currently has 258 points, while the Frenchman Quartararo has only 235. Bagnaia thus has a 23-point lead over his rival.

In order for Quartararo to defend his championship title, he has no choice but to win, while Bagnaia has to drop out or finish 15th or worse.

In any case, MotoGP qualifying kicked off at 14:10, whereupon the first part of the race didn’t bring any big surprises given its progress. Maverick Viñales and Alex Rins made it from Q1 to Q2, losing just 36 thousandths of a second to the Q1 winner.

These two drivers have therefore advanced to the final part of qualifying, while Enea Bastianini, Miguel Oliveira or Marco Bezzecchi may be disappointed not to advance. The third-named, however, did not fare too well on Saturday, suffering a big crash in the third practice session.

Pole position for Martin

In the second and final part of qualifying, twelve drivers were in contention for pole position, with Jorge Martin setting the fastest time (1:29.621). He set his fast time in the first timed lap and could not be beaten until the end of Q2.

However, other positions on the grid were fought for until the end. Marc Márquez and Jack Miller also took the second row along with Martin, with a difference of just eight thousandths of a second!

The Spanish legend clocked a time of 1::29.826, while the Australian rider clocked 1::29.834. Quartararo takes fourth place, and therefore the first place on the second row, while his rival Bagnaia will start the Valencia Grand Prix eighth.

Full results of Saturday’s qualifying can be seen in the attached Twitter post below.

Tomorrow’s decisive battle starts at 14:00. But there are other fronts besides the title fight. Third place in the Drivers’ Championship standings is currently held by Aleix Espargaro with 212 points ahead of Bastianini on 211 points.

The Spaniard Márquez will certainly try to win as well. His Honda Repsol is experiencing its worst year since 1982. Not since then has it been the case that Honda has not won at least one race in a season.

Source: MotoGP