How nice to see the stands of Ricardo Tormo again with the great atmosphere that has been experienced this Saturday at the Valencia GP. Tomorrow it will be full for the races, but in the MotoGP qualifying there have already been 55,000 souls who have cheered the fourth pole of the year for Martinator, a rookie made of a special paste who even already knows what it is to win in the premier class in his debut season.
Jorge Martín has led the Ducati triplet, after beating Francesco Bagnaia at the last moment, who was left without taking advantage of his last attempt due to a crash at Turn 2, named Doohan. His motorcycle stayed for a few moments in the center of the track and the yellow flags went up, forcing those who came from behind to cut gas. Luckily for the Madrilenian from San Sebastián de los Reyes, he was ahead and was able to shoot with everything to complete his pole poker, because this one from Valencia joins those already won in Doha and the two appointments in Austria.
The 1: 29.936 signed by Martín gave him an advantage of 64 thousandths over a Pecco who spent the day helping Valentino Rossi. Already in FP3 he gave him a wheel and that earned him the pilot who will hang up the jumpsuit tomorrow, at 42 years old and after 26 seasons in the World Championship, to achieve direct access to Q2. And once in it, he rolled it again a couple of times. The Doctor did not take advantage of it the first time, because he went from braking to the end of the straight and was close to hitting his friend and disciple. On the last attempt, the # 46 again had the collaboration of Pecco and this time it gave him to leave two drivers behind in Q2 and get tenth, which in his case is a great result.
Fourth place was also good for Joan Mir. Suzuki has been more inspired lately in qualifying and we will have to count on him for the fight for podium positions, and perhaps even for victory, because on this track he already won his only MotoGP victory last year and, the following week, he certified his title.
Along with Mir, Zarco and Rins will appear in the second row. The third was for Binder, Quartararo and Nakagami. And the fourth, for Rossi, Morbidelli and Aleix. Further back will be Maverick (14th), Lecuona (15th) and Álex Márquez (19).
The one who has not taken part in the qualifying has been Pol Espargaró, who has already returned to the circuit after being verified at the Hospital 9 de Octubre de Valencia that he does not suffer any fracture and that the very hard stick that was given in FP4 is settled with a contusion costal and on the right wrist. The Repsol Honda has not yet said if it will cause a loss for the race, but everything indicates that it will, because it can hardly even move. He has not broken his ribs, but the blow was so hard that the pain is similar to if they had been broken.