Miller takes pole in wet-dry Misano MotoGP qualifying

Jack Miller has taken the second pole position of his MotoGP career in a weather-affected qualifying session at the San Marino Grand Prix.

The Ducati Lenovo Team rider beat team-mate Francesco Bagnaia to top spot by just 0.015s although the latter will be starting fifth owing to a three-position grid penalty he incurred in Friday practice.

Six of the top seven qualifiers were on Ducatis, with championship leader Fabio Quartararo eighth on his Monster Energy Yamaha, one spot up on his nearest rival in the riders’ standings, Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro.

Light rain began to fall again at the end of Qualifying 1, at a fortuitous time for Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Ducati), and 10 of the 12 riders who made it through to Qualifying 2 started on wet Michelin tyres.

However, the shower was not heavy enough to sustain wets and all of those 10 were back in the pits to swap to their dry-weather bike if not immediately, then certainly after just one flying lap.

Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM) had been an early pace-setter with a 1:37.332s on the Michelin slicks on which he started the session, but times would tumble throughout the 15-minute hit-out.

Miller punched out a 1:31.899s in the last minute before the chequered flag to go top for a fourth time, and he would not be bettered again.

Bagnaia came close to doing so, with a 1:31.914s on his final lap, while Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) also made it onto the front row by finishing with a 1:32.014s.

In fact, only three of those dozen riders, Miller included, did not register an improvement on their last lap.

Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Ducati), who topped Q1, was fourth-fastest in the end on a 1:32.048s and hence will start from the front row.

Fifth went to Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) on a 1:32.118s, from Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Ducati) on a 1:32.169s.

Marini claimed seventh on a 1:32.226s, from Quartararo on a 1:32.246s and Espargaro on a 1:32.577s, while Row 4 will be made up of Oliveira, Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha), and Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar).

Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Ducati) was the biggest name to miss Q2 and is set to start from 13th, while first of the Honda contingent was Alex Marquez (Castrol LCR Honda) in 16th.

Remy Gardner and Tech3 KTM team-mate Raul Fernandez qualified bottom two in the 25-strong field.

Race start is scheduled for Sunday at 22:00 AEST.

Qualifying: San Marino MotoGP

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time	Gap 1st/prev	Session
1	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	1:31.899		Q2
2	63	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	1:31.914	0.015/0.015	Q2
3	23	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	1:32.014	0.115/0.100	Q2
4	72	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	1:32.048	0.149/0.034	Q2
5	12	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	1:32.118	0.219/0.070	Q2
6	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	1:32.169	0.270/0.051	Q2
7	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	1:32.226	0.327/0.057	Q2
8	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1:32.246	0.347/0.020	Q2
9	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	1:32.577	0.678/0.331	Q2
10	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:32.775	0.876/0.198	Q2
11	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1:33.351	1.452/0.576	Q2
12	42	Alex RINS	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:33.438	1.539/0.087	Q2
13	89	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	1:32.015	0.054	Q1
14	49	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	1:32.276	0.315/0.261	Q1
15	33	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:32.600	0.639/0.324	Q1
16	73	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	1:32.631	0.670/0.031	Q1
17	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	Aruba.it Racing	Ducati	1:32.658	0.697/0.027	Q1
18	04	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	1:32.663	0.702/0.005	Q1
19	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1:32.826	0.865/0.163	Q1
20	6	Stefan BRADL	GER	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1:32.838	0.877/0.012	Q1
21	40	Darryn BINDER	RSA	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	1:33.331	1.370/0.493	Q1
22	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	1:33.484	1.523/0.153	Q1
23	92	Kazuki WATANABE	JPN	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:36.289	4.328/2.805	Q1
24	87	Remy GARDNER	AUS	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:44.690	12.729/8.401	Q1
25	25	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:46.732	14.771/2.042	Q1