'Pole' with a record for Martín and second position for Márquez

Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) signed his third pole position of the season, after those in Qatar and Austin, in addition to achieving a new absolute record at the Phillip Island circuit in the official classification for the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
15 October 2022 Saturday 03:31
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'Pole' with a record for Martín and second position for Márquez

Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) signed his third pole position of the season, after those in Qatar and Austin, in addition to achieving a new absolute record at the Phillip Island circuit in the official classification for the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix. Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) will start second.

Martín stopped the best timer in the category at 1:27.767 on his sixth lap, thus improving the absolute MotoGP record, held since 2013 by Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha YZR M 1), at 1:27.899.

Márquez was able to take advantage of the wheel of some of his rivals to climb up to second position, only 13 thousandths of a second behind Martín, and ahead of the Italian Francesco "Pecco" Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), who finished 186 thousandths behind the leader.

The three contenders for the title, the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1), the Italian "Pecco" Bagnaia and the Spanish Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP), are in a "handkerchief" between third and fifth place.

The Spanish Maverick Viñales (Aprilia RS-GP) surprised with his pace and his fast lap in the fourth round of free practice, in which the main dominator was again the Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), but only until in His thirteenth lap managed to set a 1:28.976 that none of his rivals could approach, marking one of the most relevant differences of the weekend, with more than two tenths of a second over his immediate pursuer.

Other riders, with Marc Márquez, who had been the fastest overall in free practice for the second classification, finished in a more discreet fifteenth position, perhaps thinking more about preparing for the race than about a good time in a session that In reality, it is only used for that, to get the bike ready for the competition day.

The first classification was presented as one of the most interesting of the last grand prix, with a series of "illustrious names" seeking the passage to the second and the first to apply to achieve the objective was the 2020 MotoGP world champion , the Spanish Joan Mir (Suzuki GSX RR), who at the time was returning from an injury that kept him in the "dry dock" since the race in Austria.

Mir set a first reference time of 1:28.661, which was "closed" by the also Spanish Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), barely 62 thousandths of a second, although both were surpassed moments later by the Italian Enea "La Beast" Bastianini (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), winner of no less than four grand prix throughout the 2022 season.

Once again, Johann Zarco emerged as the protagonist by ascending to first place with a time of 1:28.498, which was 149 thousandths of a second faster than that of the Italian and which, moreover, left out the two Spanish riders. although they did not relent in their efforts to achieve their objective and on the sixth lap they regained the first two positions, with Repsol Honda first and Suzuki second.

At that time Zarco was in his workshop and when he saw the time monitors he returned to the track with Alex Rins (Suzuki GSX RR) stuck in his slipstream and both ended up getting the pass to the second classification after unseating Espargaró and Mir, who had already entered their workshops and could not do anything to avoid being left out of the second classification.

In this, the first leader was the Spanish Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) who in his second lap was already four thousandths of a second behind Marc Márquez's fastest lap record in the race in 2013, 1:28.112 for 1:28.108 of the eight-time world champion, who had some "problems" at turn ten and to avoid falling he had to take out his knee and make one of his "saves", going off the track without falling.

But Martín was overtaken shortly after by "Pecco" Bagnaia, who had already broken the race record by lapping in 1:28.054, with Fabio Quartararo in third position and Marc Márquez fifth.

Return to the workshops to make the final adjustments and the second and final outing to the track, in which both Marc Márquez and Alex Rins took Bagnaia's "wheel", without positive results, which Jorge Martín and Johann Zarco did manage, who They got into the top positions and the second was beaten by Aleix Espargaró, who was helped by his own teammate, Maverick Viñales, to get second.

The Repsol Honda rider did not despair, who in a second fast lap attempt after Bagnaia achieved his goal and rose to second position, ahead of the Italian and behind Martín, with Aleix Espargaró, Fabio Quartararo and Johan Zarco in second starting line formation.

The Italians Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi and, between them, the Australian Jack Miller finished in the third, with the Spaniards Alex Rins, Alex Márquez and Maverick Viñales in the fourth row.