2018 MotoGP Results Saturday from Jerez — Cal Crutchlow snatched the booty in the heart of his Spanish rivals’ homeland, taking his first pole position since 2016 for tomorrow’s Spanish GP at Jerez.
2018 MotoGP Results Saturday from Jerez
Already on top, the British winner of the Argentine GP stopped for a second set of fresh tyres and blazed to a new circuit best lap.
In blazing heat on the resurfaced circuit, the LCR Honda rider had an advantage of a quarter of a second over the next-best Honda, Dani Pedrosa’s factory Repsol machine.
Then some surprises, as Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha) pushed race favourite Marc Marquez off the Repsol Honda rider’s front row position, and then Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati – the only other rider to stop twice in the 15 minutes) consigned him to fifth.
Set to get back, Marquez ran wide at the Dry Sack hairpin on his final run, and was condemned to start from the middle of the second row.
In hot but otherwise near-perfect conditions at a popular track, times were close, and all 12 riders in Q2 easily within one second. Margins were small, but positions important; with the Movistar Yamaha riders struggling with persistent wheelspin in the heat, and again falling far short of third-placed Zarco’s independent bike. Valentino Rossi was tenth, and Maverick Vinales 11th, with Jack Miller Alma Pramac Ducati in 12th.
Ahead of them, Alex Rins completed row two in sixth. His Ecstar Suzuki team-mate Andrea Iannone, fastest in FP4, led row three in seventh, from Andrea Dovizioso’s factory Ducati and Danilo Petrucci’s Alma Pramac Ducati.
Crutchlow praised the work of his team. “They’ve worked well all weekend, and the bike feels good,” he said.
Pedrosa, winner here last year, had some reservations about his condition, after breaking his right wrist at round two in Argentina. “I still have some pain and a lack of power,” he said.
Dovizioso and Vinales had both come through from Q1, where 13th qualifier Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) missed the chance of deposing the latter by 0.040 of a second.
Only Crutchlow and Lorenzo ran a two-stop strategy – the short lap time here (less than 1m40s) offering this rare opportunity. Jack Miller was one who might have benefitted, after his second tyre didn’t perform as he’d hoped, but having used two soft rears in the morning to be sure of getting into Q2, “we didn’t have enough tyres”.
