Vinales turns Yamaha’s Austria form around with shock pole

Yamaha factory rider Maverick Vinales snatched pole position for the first MotoGP race at the Red Bull Ring.

Vinales had a lap good enough for provisional pole deleted for a track limits infringement in the early minutes of Q2, but was unfazed, staying within the track next time for a lap that was quicker still.

The 1m23.694s left him 0.022s clear of his 2021 team-mate Fabio Quartararo as the pair established a Yamaha 1-2 coming into the decisive minutes.

Vinales shaved off another half a tenth once he rejoined the track, only for Andrea Dovizioso to pop up with a 1m23.618s and jump ahead of both Yamahas.

But the Ducati man was shuffled back down by a 1m23.450s from Vinales and a smaller improvement from Quartararo, and was unable to challenge the leading Yamahas – which had struggled on Friday – on his final lap.

Instead, Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller surged from sixth to second, lapping 0.068s slower than Vinales.

Quartararo will make up the front row, ahead of Dovizioso – who shocked the paddock on Saturday by deciding to back out of contract negotiations with Ducati for 2021 – and Pol Espargaro.

KTM man Espargaro had crashed in the pre-qualifying fourth practice at Turn 9, moments after his Aprilia-riding brother Aleix had done the same at the same corner.

He rebounded in Q2, and was even up on the pole time two sectors into his final lap, but ultimately completed a top five split by 0.162s.

Joan Mir was sixth for Suzuki, he and eighth-placed team-mate Alex Rins split by Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha).

Johann Zarco and Valentino Rossi progressed from Q1 and qualified ninth and 12th respectively, sandwiching Honda’s sole Q2 representative Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) and Tech3 KTM rider Miguel Oliveira.

Dovizioso’s works Ducati team-mate Danilo Petrucci had been on course to progress from Q1 for most of the session, only to miss out at the death by 0.024s to Rossi and half a tenth to Zarco.

Petrucci, who was seriously incensed late in Q1 by Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro jumping in line ahead of him during a flying lap to try to follow Rossi, therefore became the first factory Ducati rider not to make the pole shootout at the Red Bull Ring since its 2016 debut on the calendar.

Espargaro himself was 14th, ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow and the KTM duo of Tech3 rider Iker Lecuona and works rider Brad Binder, who had won the Czech Republic GP last weekend.

Honda’s Alex Marquez posted the best qualifying of his premier-class career so far but was only 18th.

Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, making his first MotoGP race appearance for the year as replacement for the injured Francesco Bagnaia at Pramac, will make up the grid in 22nd.

Qualifying Results