Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo celebrated his fourth MotoGP pole in as many races, with a record-breaking 1’45.187 lap of Mugello this afternoon.
Having dominated the majority of Saturday's track action ahead of the ItalianGP, Quartararo continued his run of form to take provisional pole with his second lap of the final 15-minute session.
His second run was even more impressive as he broke the Tuscan circuit’s all-time-lap record - shaving almost three-tenths off Pecco Bagnaia’s FP3 effort for the same accolade - gifting him command of Sunday’s grid for the fourth-consecutive time.
“This was probably the best lap I have ever done in my life” an excited Quartararo said from Parc Ferme.
“This is the type of track where you can really feel the adrenaline. I was on the limit everywhere. In the first sector, I was moving all the time, but I just said ’I‘m going to send it’.
“This morning when I made ’45.6 and I saw Pecco was two-tenths faster I said 'Wow! Qualifying for sure, could get really close to ’44 and ’45 low'. The first run, I did a mistake on my first lap and here I feel like it is only the first lap of the tyre that is good on our bike.
“I really wanted to do the fastest lap today, and it worked - I’m actually really looking forward to seeing the onboard lap, because for sure it will look amazing!
“Today was a good day. I enjoyed that lap. I really wanted this pole position, because I know it‘s important for us for the race. [There are] too many riders with good pace, Pecco, Johann, Rins, myself. I think that we have a really great pace. When we make one lap pace, it's really close. We lose on the straight, is true but our bike, honestly, is turning super well, I'm feeling really good. In a race it’s different. Qatar we had much more opportunities to overtake, in this track is more difficult, so let's see tomorrow.
“The hole-shot device is working well, I'm quite happy about the front device that we have. The beginning of FP1 I was struggling a little bit to use it, it was also strange in the first breaking because you feel that your bike is super low, but in qualifying I made really great starts and step-by-step we will take confidence. I feel like for tomorrow's start, we can do something well. The conditions will change, we know, after Moto2 race, here is one of the tracks that changes the most but I’m really looking to tomorrow.
“I hope to make a great start and then we will see, because I ride alone this weekend. I've made a few overtakes but is not easy, so we will see. Most of all, with the Suzuki, I think we will not struggle more but we know the KTM and the Ducati on the straight is difficult. We knew that here and Barcelona was not going to be easy but I'm happy to start in this position and I will do my best for tomorrow.
“I want to dedicate this pole to Jason Dupasquier, who had a really bad crash earlier today. I hope that he‘s okay. I‘m praying for him and his family and hope we will have great news coming.”
