It’s been another weekend packed full of drama in Jerez – and it’s not even race day yet. To get yourself set for the Gran Premio Red Bull de Andalucia, check out 10 statistics that emerged after an intense qualifying session.
1. Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) has qualified on pole position for the third successive time in MotoGP™ at Jerez, a sequence that started at the Spanish GP last year.
2. This is the fifth successive pole position for Yamaha, which is the longest sequence of pole positions for the Japanese manufacturer since 2010 (five times in a row from Silverstone to Laguna Seca with Jorge Lorenzo).
3. With his fourth successive pole position, Quartararo becomes the first French rider to start from pole position in the premier class at least four successive times since Christian Sarron, who qualified on pole five times in a row in 1988 (from Austria to France).
4. If Quartararo wins the race in Andalusia (21 years and 97 days old), he will be the second-youngest rider to take back-to-back premier class wins, behind Marc Marquez (20 years and 154 days old) in Germany-USA in 2013.
5. This is the first time Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) misses a Grand Prix race since Valencia back in 2011 when he was racing in Moto2™.
6. After exceeding track limits, Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) has qualified in second place for the second week in a row. P2 was his best result in qualifying since Malaysia last year, where he eventually won.
7. Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) has qualified in P3 as the highest-placed Ducati rider, which is his best qualifying result in MotoGP™. He will be aiming to stand on the podium for the first time in the class on Sunday.
8. The most successful rider in the premier class at Jerez with seven wins is Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™), who retired from the race at the Spanish GP, has qualified in fourth place. This is The Doctor’s best qualifying result since he was fourth in Australia last year and his best qualifying result at Jerez since he was on pole in 2016 – he went onto win the race.
9. Joining Q2 for the first time since he stepped up to MotoGP™, Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech3) has qualified in fifth as the highest-placed KTM rider. This is his best qualifying result in the premier class, as well as the best of a Portuguese rider in the premier class.
10. Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) has qualified in seventh place, which is the first time he failed to qualify within the front two rows of the grid since he qualified in ninth in Australia last year on his way to finishing in third.