- 2021-11-14
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ MotoGP Valencia: Jorge Martin Takes Fourth Pole Position, All-Ducati Front Row
The Round 18 of MotoGP 2021, Valencia Grand Prix took place at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia on November 13, 2021.
Following Algarve Grand Prix, Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) withdrew this event due to crash during off-road training sessions.
The rookie Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) took his fourth pole position of 2021 season after beating Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Team) by 0.064 seconds in a final qualifying of the year.
This is the first pole at Valencia for Ducati since 2010 with Casey Stoner.
Initially, Francesco Bagnaia seemed to take sixth-straight pole position with 1m30.000s, but Jorge Martin was getting better than him before Bagnaia crashed out with 90 seconds remaining at Turn 2. Finally Francesco Bagnaia was 2nd.
Jack Miller (Ducati Team) finished 3rd position, three Ducati riders were on the front row.
Joan Mir (Suzuki Ecstar) finished 4th ahead of Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) for his second-best qualifying result of the season after Algarve last time. Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) advanced to Q2 from Q1 and was 6th.
The 9-time World Champion Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha) will begin his final MotoGP race from 10th on the grid.
Jorge Martin said, “I knew that I could do this pole position. Before the qualifying I was really confident. The target was ultimately the front row because at the end of the day it's really important to be in the front here. It's really difficult to overtake here. The first lap was good but I did some mistake and I knew I could improve. Even if the second tyre was perfect, I felt a lot of spin from the beginning. But, I improved all the weak points and was fully focused. For sure there's still a bit of margin because it was on the limit. The (race) pace is not bad but it's a pity we tried the hard in FP4 because I don't think it's the race tyre. I hope the medium is working well at the end of the race and I think we can battle for the podium. These two guys I have here (Bagnaia & Miller) are for sure the strongest (competition). But tomorrow the most important thing is to win rookie of the year. We need to finish and finish in front of Enea [Bastianini]. I think that as long as we finish then we will be in front. We are really strong for the podium. For sure, Ducati factory riders will be strong and Suzuki's Rins and Mir - maybe Zarco too. But I feel like we are ready for the battle.”
Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana Qualifying Results- Jorge Martin / Pramac Ducati / 1'29.936s
- Francesco Bagnaia / Ducati Team / +0.064s
- Jack Miller / Ducati Team / +0.389s
- Joan Mir / Suzuki Ecstar / +0.459s
- Johann Zarco / Pramac Ducati / +0.482s
- Alex Rins / Suzuki Ecstar / +0.539s
- Brad Binder / Red Bull KTM / +0.573s
- Fabio Quartararo / Monster Yamaha / +0.684s
- Takaaki Nakagami / LCR Honda / +0.708s
- Valentino Rossi / Petronas Yamaha / +0.810s
- Franco Morbidelli / Monster Yamaha / +0.845s
- Aleix Espargaro / Aprilia Gresini / +1.088s
- Andrea Dovizioso / Petronas Yamaha / 1'30.859s
- Maverick Viñales / Aprilia Gresini / 1'30.991s
- Iker Lecuona / KTM Tech3 / 1'30.994s
- Danilo Petrucci / KTM Tech3 / 1'31.045s
- Luca Marini / Sky VR46 Avintia Ducati / 1'31.073s
- Enea Bastianini / Avintia Ducati / 1'31.185s
- Alex Marquez / LCR Honda / 1'31.251s
- Miguel Oliveira / Red Bull KTM / 1'31.319s
- Pol Espargaro / Repsol Honda / No Time
- source : MotoGP
