MISANO ADRIATICO, Italy – Maverick Viñales took his second straight pole at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli during qualifying for the MotoGP Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday.
Viñales posted a best time of 1:31.077, which wouldn’t have been good enough for top honors at first, but Pramac Racing’s Francesco Bagnaia had his time of 1:30.973 disallowed for exceeding the track limits at the final corner of the 2.626-mile, 16-turn course.
That handed the lead spot on the grid to the Spaniard, whose time was also a new track qualifying record as well for the premier class of grand prix motorcycle racing.
It was Viñales’ 13th MotoGP pole with the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Team.
“We worked really hard today and we got the job done. We hope that tomorrow all the hard work will pay off as well,” said Viñales. “We are going to try the maximum. I’m very happy and comfortable with the bike. I was very relaxed in FP4 in conditions that are similar to tomorrow’s race, so we will see. Today I focused mainly on riding with a full fuel tank and the race set-up. Tomorrow is a new opportunity to improve. If we don’t, we will try again at the next race in Montmeló.
“We have good potential, but I think we can still do better. We’re going to try to be at the best level.”
Jack Miller, also riding for Pramac Racing, came out of Q1 to eventually time second-quickest with a lap of 1:31.153. He was just .076 seconds off the pole time.
Fabio Quartararo completed the front row in third for Petronas Yamaha SRT, followed by Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro and Bagnaia, who was credited with fifth after his second-best lap of 1:31.313. Brad Binder starts sixth on a second Red Bull KTM mount.
Valentino Rossi, Franco Morbidelli, Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso fill out the top 10 qualifiers for MotoGP’s Misano round.