Pol Espargaro celebrated his maiden pole position at Repsol Honda after a stunning 1’58.889 lap of the Silverstone circuit to head the BritishGP grid.
Ducati looked to dominate after challenges from Jack Miller, Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, with the Italian securing second in the closing stages, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo completing the front row for Sunday’s 20-lap race.
The qualifying battle got underway under a blanket of cloud at the Northamptonshire circuit, the 18℃ ambient temperatures keeping the track in the mid-20’s as Cal Crutchlow and Jake Dixon set out in front of the home fans.
The grid was already one rider down after Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori had chosen to sit out the rest of the weekend, his injured ankle proving too much of a hindrance during Friday practice.
Nursing his own injury, lingering from his FP1 crash in Styria, Miguel Oliveira set the initial pace as the session fired up, his 2’00.3 time being quickly bettered as the first flying laps came in.
Johann Zarco looked to rise to the top, but was forced to settle for second. Enea Bastianini claiming the lead with a 1’59.553 on his third lap of the 15-minute sprint with Alex Rins outside of contention by a two-tenth margin.
Takaaki Nakagami was the next to challenge, but he too fell short, finding third with just over two minutes left to push.
The yellow flags came out in sector three for the penultimate minute as Bastianini suffered a highside on his final hot-lap. The late efforts fading away with one final shot left in the tank.
Zarco and Rins were both on a charge with the Suzuki initialling holding court before the Frenchman struck, the pair securing their passage into Q2 with the Avintia rider settling for third, neatly ahead of teammate Luca Marini.
An impressive debut performance saw Dixon complete his first try on qualifying rubber just 1.5s back from the Pramac Ducati, with a personal best of 2’00.869, and six-tenths behind Crutchlow in ninth.
The excitement built as the shootout approached with Martin gunning for a potential third pole on the bounce. It was the Ducati of Miller, however, how took the first 1’59 strike, his teammate Bagnaia and then Quartararo bettering the Australian, 1’58.990 now the time to beat.
A strong start saw Valentino Rossi initially in fourth, before the times shuffled once agin. Martin’s second place was quickly challenged by Bagnaia, the pair circulating on 1’59.2 pace with Espargaro up to fourth from Miller and his elder brother. Rossi sat between the Suzukis of Joan Mir and Rins with Brad Binder, Zarco and the so far unclassified Marc Marquez at the back of the pack.
Quartararo aimed to prevent being the target of an end of session tow with some garage theatrics, the Frenchman heading out with just his countryman behind, as Marquez had yet another lap time cancelled for track limits.
The final runs allowed improvements from Miller, to fourth, before Espargaro launched to the lead on the Repsol Honda. His pole hopes initially dashed by a seemingly blistering lap from Martin with a 1’58.008 and an all-time lap record for the Pramac rider, but with the team and rider failing to celebrate as the time was obviously called into question, a turn-eight shortcut was uncovered as the eventual culprit.
Espargaro was reinstated to pole celebrations with Bagnaia and Quartararo completing the front row as Martin dipped to fourth. Marquez and Aleix Espargaro rounded out the second row ahead of Miller, Rossi, Zarco, the double Suzuki’s of Rins and Mir with Binder the last of the top-12.
