One reason why 2018 Catalan GP will be remembered is the first “in-red” pole position of Jorge Lorenzo: the rider from Mallorca had scored no pole position with Ducati yet and the Italian manfacturer’s last pole position at Montmeló was the one of Casey Stoner dating back to 2008. This makes the result achieved by Lorenzo and Ducati even more extraordinary and the goal for tomorrow’s race is to repeat the win scored at Mugello. Lorenzo will share first row with Marc Marquez (who went through Q1) and Jorge’s team-mate Andrea Dovizioso. Tomorrow the race will start at 14.00 local time. It will be a not-to-miss one, for sure…
Q2 was very exciting from the start. Lorenzo took the lead in the early stages, but then he was passed by Marquez (the first one to ride below 1:39.) and Rossi and the whole top 10 was within one second. The final attack was even more exciting, despite Cal Crutchlow crashing at Turn 13 while he was improving his laptime, and finally Jorge Lorenzo’s lap in 1:38.680 remained unbeated and so the man from Mallorca scored his first pole position on Ducati, followed by Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso. Fourth place for Maverick Viñales, opening second row ahead of Andrea Iannone and Danilo Petrucci, while Valentino Rossi will start seventh. Johann Zarco, Tito Rabat and Cal Crutchlow closed the top 10. 11th and 12th place went to Dani Pedrosa and Takaaki Nakagami.
Previously, Q1 saw the crash of Xavier Simeon at the very beginning and the Belgian also complained with marshals, who didn’t allow him to rejoin the track. Marquez topped Q1 followed by Takaaki Nakagami, with the latter securing Q2 access after beating Jack Miller and Hafizh Syahrin.
