Pecco on pole! There, I said it. Young Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati) was expected by many to be the star rookie in the MotoGP series last year. For the most part, he had a mediocre year (with a few flashes of brilliance). Earlier today, however, Bagnaia shattered the lap record at Qatar by more than 1/2 a second to take pole position for tomorrow’s opening round of the 2021 MotoGP championship.
Lining up on the front row with Bagnaia will be Yamaha teammates Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Viñales.
The first two rows are entirely Ducatis and Yamahas, with Valentino Rossi taking the 4th spot ahead of the Ducatis ridden by Jack Miller and Johann Zarco.
Take a look here for Q2 results from Qatar, and stay tuned for a race report from MD tomorrow.
Rossi is 42 years old and still getting it done…amazing.
I think the top 8 or 9 qualifiers all beat Marquez’s lap record on the course during qualifying. Doubt many will beat it during the race when they are running in groups and not on brand new soft tires.
Why would they? The race lap record is never as fast as the outright lap record, and MM doesn’t even hold it. Fastest race lap was set by JL99 in 2016. I’m betting that one falls tomorrow.
*New race lap record: Maverick Viñales 2021 – 1:54.624 😉
Watching qualifying was great again. Those Ducatis are fast. Miller saw 225.1 mph this weekend.
Looks to be either a Yamaha or Ducati year…probably Ducati since Yamaha cant seem to be real consistent. Mir would have to be a dark horse to repeat.
A Espeargaro loked good on the Aprilia. P Espargaro on the Honda not so much.
I’m still predicting Morbidelli or Miller for the win tomorrow
Pretty sure it was Zarco that hit 225 mickey. Although all Ducatis were bullets 🏍️
You’re right Motoman it was Zarco
So much for my predictions lol
I had pretty much forgotten about Bagnaia. Well done. Hopefully he doesn’t fade away w/ crashes or injuries.
The current crop of MGP bikes are brutal. Even the slow bikes are amazingly fast. It should be a good season. Marc will have his work cut out for him when he returns.