Andrea Dovizioso will kickoff 1st for the first time this season. 2nd place for Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez 3rd.
Ducati is back to the pole in Brno, ten years after Casey Stoner’s last one: this time the leading rider is Andrea Dovizioso (28 races after his last pole) thanks to an amazing final lap that gave him the pole position. Together with him on the front row, there will be Valentino Rossi, who managed to climb all the way up from the end of the group, and Marc Marquez, only 5 thousandths after the Italian rider.
Qualifying immediately got into the action, with a fierce battle for the pole position and an excellent Lorenzo who registered a 1:55.059 that temporarily gave him a half-a-second advantage over his rivals. The first round ended with a hard-fought competition: eventually, Andrea Dovizioso got the pole with a great 1:54.689 and Valentino Rossi finished 2nd, with some two-tenths more. Marc Marquez closed Qualifying 3rd, filling the last position on the front row, ahead of Jorge Lorenzo, Cal Crutchlow, and Danilo Petrucci. Johann Zarco crossed the finish line 7th, followed by Suzuki riders Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins. The other positions in the top 12 went to Dani Pedrosa, Tito Rabat, and Maverick Viñales.
Q1 started with some taken-for-granted names (such as Viñales): riders that everyone was expecting to see in Q2 thanks to their excellent performances in the first two rounds. Redding crashed right at the beginning, leaving an intense fight between Maverick Viñales and Alex Rins for the first two positions on the starting grid. Miller tried to get in the way of the two Spanish riders but ended up slipping and having to withdraw from Q1. Abraham also fell, followed soon after by his teammate Bautista. Morbidelli didn’t make it to Q2 for just a tenth, arriving 3rd and getting the well-deserved place as the best rookie in Q1.
Q2 ranking
The starting grid
