Valencia GP – Valencia GP Qualifying: Morbidelli saves Yamaha’s honor with pole –

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Valencia GP Qualifying: Morbidelli saves Yamaha’s honor with pole

Valencia GP - Valencia GP Qualifying: Morbidelli saves Yamaha's honor with pole -

Morbidelli’s pole position (ahead of Miller, Nakagami and Zarco) is good for Yamaha, obscuring its valve worries and the underperformance of Vinales, Rossi and Quartararo. Fabio, in fact, qualified only 11th … ahead of Mir who will race for the MotoGP 2020 title tomorrow !

As if … As if the 2020 Intercontinental Circus season was not sufficiently turned upside down and spectacular, a few drops of rain appeared at the very end of the fourth free practice session of this Valencia GP … either a few moments before the first qualifying session !

For the record, the "Q1" opposes the drivers who have failed to climb into the Top 10 combined during the first three free practice sessions (Friday and Saturday morning). They then have a quarter of an hour to post the best possible time and try to win one of the two additional tickets for "Q2"…

The eleven drivers of this first qualifying session finally drove on a dry track, kept slick tires and set very good lap times. In the middle of the session, however, Alex Marquez made a strong impression – and his tailbone especially ?! – by being keenly catapulted by his RC213V. The fault of a thin film of water in turn 11 ?

Stunned, the Spanish n ° 73 was however able to get up, reach his box … and start charging again on his second bike! Tenacious the Moto2 champion? It is nothing to write it down. The HRC driver must nevertheless be satisfied with the penultimate place on the starting grid ahead of Lorenzo Savadori, replacing the replacement (!) Of Andrea Iannone.

Another Alex is extremely disappointed at the end of Q1: Rins is only fourth on the timesheet and will place his No. 42 Suzuki a distant fourteenth on the grid tomorrow. It will be ahead of three other factory machines: the Ducati n ° 9 by Petrucci, the Yamaha n ° 46 by Rossi and the Ducati n ° 04 by Dovizioso. "Mamma mia" !

This Saturday morning in FP3, Fabio Quartararo had been deprived of the tenth ticket giving direct access to Q2 by Aleix Espargaro and his Aprilia … for two thousandths of a second! Forced to go through Q1 therefore, our tasty "French 20" managed to sign the second fastest time behind the phenomenal rookie Brad Binder.

A few minutes later in Q2, "El Diablo" was clearly not spared as evidenced by his miraculous rescue from a low-side in Turn 2 in the middle of the session. A session that he spent entirely on the track for lack of a second soft rear rubber to put on: like Brad Binder, Fabio had burned a first cartridge in Q1.

Three minutes from the checkered flag, KTM had a prodigious hat-trick with Binder, Espargaro and Oliveira. But that was before the top drivers really knocked down the lap times … Maverick Vinales, Jack Miller and Franco Morbidelli succeeded each other at the top of the standings. And no.21 was not beaten !

Upset by the issue of non-compliant valves, no doubt disappointed by its factory riders in small form lately, and frustrated by "our" Fabio Quartararo too far behind the leader Joan Mir, Yamaha can rejoice in the pole position signed this afternoon in Valence by Franco Morbidelli. Be careful, however, the thinning could be short-lived…

Just a tenth of a second behind No. 21 of the Yamaha Petronas SRT team, Jack Miller will install his No. 43 Desmosedici in the middle of the first row, ahead of the No. 30 RCV of Takaaki Nakagami, already third on the grid six days ago during of the "European GP" contested on the same circuit of Riccardo Tormo.

A third of a second slower than the Italian poleman, Johann Zarco is ahead of the Spanish poleman last week: his former teammate at KTM, n ° 44 Pol Espargaro! Another good news for fans of "our" two-time Moto2 champion: the n ° 5 was third in the FP4.

Maverick Vinales on his official Yamaha n ° 12 completes the second place on the Valencian grid, having turned only 12 thousandths of a second faster than Aleix Espargaro at the controls of his Aprilia n ° 41. What to raise the rating of the RS-GP? … or lower that of the M1 !

At the head of the constructors’ championship with 188 points (against 181 for Ducati, 163 for Yamaha and 159 for KTM), Suzuki had a particularly disappointing Saturday afternoon: in addition to the incomprehensible 14th place for Rins (when he was 2nd a week ago!), Mir’s 12th place is not reassuring…

The leader of the provisional classification – drivers – will have to start from the middle of the grid, just behind his great rival Fabio Quartararo and not far ahead of his teammate and nevertheless opponent Alex Rins. As a reminder, Joan Mir has 162 points, 37 more than the n ° 20 and 42…

To clinch the world title, Mir must finish ahead of her last five championship rivals at this stage of the competition: Quartararo, Rins, Vinales, Morbidelli and Dovizioso. An eighth podium – better still, a second consecutive victory – would also secure him the world crown, regardless of his opponents’ results. But that the podium seems far away today !

Finally, for information, the Top 20 at the end of the fourth free practice session was held in nine small tenths of a second! This FP4 being used to refine the "race" configuration of motorcycles, it promises for tomorrow afternoon … Stay connected and #RestezCare !

Valencia GP 2020: the starting grid

Valencia GP - Valencia GP Qualifying: Morbidelli saves Yamaha's honor with pole -

Sunday November 15, 2020

  • Moto3 warm-up: from 9 a.m. to 9:20 a.m.
  • Moto2 warm-up: 9:30 a.m. to 9:50 a.m.
  • MotoGP warm-up: from 10:00 a.m. to 10:20 a.m.
  • Moto3 race start: 11h00
  • Moto2 race start: 12:20 p.m.
  • MotoGP race start: 2:00 p.m.

The Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia

  • 2020 European GP winner : (Suzuki)
  • 2019 winner : (Honda)
  • Pole position 2020 of the European GP : (KTM)
  • Pole position 2019: (Yamaha) in 1’29.978
  • Absolute circuit record : (1’29.401) in 2016
  • Rotation : counterclockwise
  • 14 turns : 9 left and 5 right
  • Length : 4005 m
  • Width : 12 m
  • Straight line : 876 m
  • Running distance : 108.135 km (27 laps)

Valencia GP - Valencia GP Qualifying: Morbidelli saves Yamaha's honor with pole -

MotoGP Valence Grand Prix retrospective

  • European GP 2020 :
  • Valencia GP 2019 :
  • Valencia GP 2018 :
  • Valencia GP 2017 : Special file
  • Valencia GP 2016 : A spectacular finale…
  • Valencia GP 2015 : Lorenzo world champion
  • 2014 Valencia GP : A breathtaking final !
  • 2013 Valencia GP : Statements and Analysis
  • Valencia GP 2012 : Statements and Analysis
  • Valencia GP 2011 : Statements and Analysis
  • Valencia GP 2010 : Statements and Analysis
  • Valencia GP 2009 : Spanish treble for the last race of the season
  • Valencia GP 2008 : Turn-by-turn report
  • Valencia GP 2007 : Turn-by-turn report
  • Valencia GP 2006 : Turn-by-turn report
  • Valencia GP 2005 : Turn-by-turn report
  • 2004 Valencia GP : Turn-by-turn report
  • 2003 Valencia GP : Rossi wins and keeps the suspense going…

MotoGP provisional classification before the Valencia GP

  1. Suzuki 162
  2. Yamaha 125
  3. Suzuki 125
  4. Yamaha 121
  5. Yamaha 117
  6. Ducati 117
  7. KTM 106
  8. Honda 105
  9. Ducati 92
  10. KTM 90
  11. Ducati 77
  12. KTM 76
  13. Ducati 71
  14. Honda 67
  15. Yamaha 58
  16. Ducati 42
  17. KTM 27
  18. Aprilia 27
  19. Honda 26
  20. Honda 16
  21. Aprilia 12
  22. Ducati 10
  23. Ducati 4

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