Pol Espargaro stuns for Silverstone pole

2021 FIM MotoGP World Championship
Round 12 – Silverstone – Qualifying

Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) is back in business! After a tougher time of late, the Spaniard has hooked it up so far at Silverstone and in Q2, the number 44 hit a landmark run to take his first pole position since joining the Repsol Honda Team.

It was incredibly close at the top, with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) just 0.022 back and Championship leader Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) locking out a top three split by just 0.036. Over a near 6km lap, it could hardly be any closer.

MotoGP Rider Quotes

Pol Espargaro – P1

“Incredible. Just incredible. I almost can’t believe it. We arrived here in Silverstone after two really difficult weekends in Austria and this gave me a lot of motivation, a lot of fire to push this weekend. I have been feeling so good this weekend with the bike, the track, the grip and I am so pleased we were able to make the most of it today. I want to say a huge thank you to the Repsol Honda Team, to Alberto Puig, to Takeo, to Kuwata-san, all of them have helped me so much and continued to work 100% behind me no matter what. We have kept working all this time and we will keep working, but I just want to enjoy this moment for now.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P2

“I’m delighted with my qualifying today. There’s a lot of harmony in my team, and together we’re doing an incredible job: we’ve made great progress with our bike, despite this not being a track particularly favourable for us. We got second place and the front row, and our pace in FP4 was also excellent. We’re still unsure about our tyre choice for the race, and we’ll have to evaluate the weather conditions tomorrow morning, but otherwise, I’m confident we can fight with the front guys in tomorrow’s race”.

Fabio Quartararo – P3

“I‘m happy about the front row, but to be honest, I didn‘t feel so good with the soft rear tyre in Qualifying. Normally I feel much more grip with the soft tyre than I did today. Anyway, I‘m on the front row, that was our main aim. I‘m just a little bit disappointed about Qualifying. But the pace with the medium tyre is great, we‘re pretty fast, and that‘s the most important thing for the race. I will do my best tomorrow. I think we have great potential to fight for the podium and the victory, but we‘ll approach it step by step. I feel great and our pace is good, so let‘s see.”

Jorge Martín – P4

“I am satisfied. To be starting from the second row tomorrow is a great result. My pace in FP4 was good; I feel able to compete. Tomorrow we can have a good race.”

Marc Marquez – P5

“My eye today is much better; it was not a big problem, but it was disturbing me a lot yesterday. My body still had some pain today after the 270 km/h crash. I think our Qualifying was strong today since normally I feel some limitations there and we have achieved our goal of the second row. Let’s see what’s possible tomorrow in the race because the bike has been working well here since Free Practice 1. If we can continue in this direction we can have a good race and it’s important to keep closing the distance to the top guys. Also congratulations to Pol and to Honda for the pole position.”

Aleix Espargaro – P6

“I’m fast here and I feel very good. Aprilia has given me the most competitive bike of the season. We have no obvious weaknesses and that makes me optimistic. In FP4, I took the tyres to 21 laps with good times, so we definitely have the pace. In qualifying, I could have done better but I won’t complain. At the end of the day, we are all rather close and the second row isn’t bad. There are times when you have all the right cards to make a play for it and I think tomorrow will be one of those times for us.”

Jack Miller – P7

“I’m pretty unhappy with today’s result in qualifying. After managing to post a great time this morning in FP3, I was obviously hoping for something more this afternoon. Unfortunately, in Q2, I didn’t feel completely comfortable with the new tyres. Tomorrow in the race, we will have to attack immediately to try and make up positions and not let Quartararo get away in the early laps. Even though we’ll start from seventh position, from the third row, I don’t think it’ll be difficult: in general, my feeling with the Desmosedici GP on this track is very good, so I’ll try to give my best in tomorrow’s race”.

Valentino Rossi – P8

“I have a better pace here, compared to Qatar where I was fourth on the grid, as I was inside the top-ten throughout Free Practice today. I feel good with the bike, so now we just need to make the right tyre choice for tomorrow’s race. It’s hard to predict what the feeling will be like in the race, as sometimes you can be strong during practice but slower in the race. Hopefully I will continue to feel good tomorrow. Recently my starts have not been the best, so we need to work on that and make sure I stay in the pack during the opening laps. We will then see what our pace is like; I’ll give my maximum though and try to stay inside the top-ten.”

Johann Zarco – P9

“I wasn’t able to do any better than ninth – I gave it my all. We have taken a step forward compared to yesterday. In FP4, we were able to obtain important information, which we will make use of tomorrow. To start well tomorrow will prove to be fundamental.”

Alex Rins – P10

“Today was a strange day because in FP3 we struggled a little bit with the crash, that put me out of Q2 and then it was hard because I was really pushing for Q2 and I hoped to be there. In the end, I got in via Q1 and I improved my time so I was quite satisfied. I set some good lap times and I had a really good feeling with the bike. The tyre options were useful to try and tomorrow, even though I’m a bit far back on the grid, I want to ride like I did in the past here and get a nice result for the team.”

Joan Mir – P11

“Normally I would say that starting in 11th position is something normal for us, but today I expected more really. I felt good in the morning and I got through to Q2 without any problems. But then I started to have some trouble with tyres and also electronics, and it was difficult to fix this. It’s not a mechanical thing, the electronics are quite complicated to get right – in some corners I felt really good and then in others I felt bad. It was difficult to get a fast lap. I’m not worried for tomorrow because I think that we can fix it. So I feel quite ready for the race.”

Brad Binder – P12

“Today was OK, we started this morning a bit tough, a bit difficult, but I found a lap that pulled me onto the Q2 session. I gave my all in Q2 but there was not much more left for me. I did my best and 12th place will have to do. We’ll do our homework tonight and get in the mix tomorrow. I felt pretty good all weekend. I think in the race we can be stronger.”

Enea Bastianini – P13

“Today I tried, I was going to the maximum and we crashed. Anyway, we have a great pace. In FP4 I felt good on used tires and I’m very happy with the work we’ve done with the team, because we’ve improved every lap. The Ducati has strong points on this track, so tomorrow we will give our maximum from the start to get a good result.”

Luca Marini – P14

“I’m happy with qualifying, we all went very fast and 14th place is a good result on this track. In FP4 we had problems and I wasn’t satisfied, as I had no grip on the medium tire and I couldn’t keep the pace I wanted. The tire choice for tomorrow will be crucial, now we will analyse the data and try to understand what will be the right choice. The grid position is good”.

Takaaki Nakagami – P15

“So, it was a tough session again in qualifying, I gave it my best but I did not have enough speed and the lap time was not enough. I ended up in Q1 and then in P5, so that means P15 on the grid for tomorrow’s race. We will try our best, we will try to make a good start and then 20 laps around here means we will have a lot of chance to make up places. I’ll do my best and then let’s see what happens in the race.”

Danilo Petrucci – P16

“We managed to do a lap that is quite close to the others, even if the position still doesn’t look great. In terms of race pace, I think we are set up well and I hope we can fight tomorrow to stay in the points. The race will be very long here. I’m happy. We still have to understand, which tyre we will use tomorrow, but overall I’m satisfied about today.”

Álex Márquez – P17

“As we know, Silverstone is a difficult track to learn with a MotoGP bike, today we made some changes to the set-up which were good and we made a lot of improvement in FP4 and FP3 also. We still have many things to improve, especially in the set-up area as I’m not comfortable, but that’s how it is and we knew there would be weekends like this when I have to learn the track. Unfortunately, in the qualy (Q1) it was not my best performance, I made a mistake that lost us two or three tenths. But tomorrow we’ll try to make a good start, we have Taka close to us as well, so we’ll do our best and make the best result possible.” 

Iker Lecuona – P18

“This morning I felt pretty good, although it was a shame that there have been so many yellow flags, so you always have to close the gas and I had no chance to go straight to Q2, after we have been so close yesterday. I think the potential was there, but in Q1 I was finally struggling a lot and did some mistakes. I don’t know what happened and I want to say sorry to my team for this. For tomorrow, it’s going to be difficult. My race pace is good though, so the first laps will be crucial.”

Cal Crutchlow – P19

“I feel good with the set-up of the bike and I’m riding in a good way, but I don’t feel comfortable at the moment. The bike was shaking a lot, and we’re trying to work out why. I went back to the setting I tested with many times, and that was better in the corners and on acceleration, but still on the straights it was exactly the same. We will look into that tonight. I did have a couple of good sessions. FP3 and FP4 were good. Just Qualifying was not. I made some mistakes, and on my fastest lap I got the yellow flag. That would have been a good lap, and I would have been right up there. My qualifying time was the same as the last time I rode here, so it shows I am still able to go fast, it’s just that everybody else is going faster.”

Miguel Oliveira – P20

“Despite being the worst qualifying of the year so far I still feel there is a good chance to score some points tomorrow. This will be our goal and we’ll push to make some good laps for myself and the team.”

Jake Dixon – P21

“It is difficult because you can’t take your time to get used to the bike, like you could at a test, and there’s a lot to learn in a short amount of time. I felt good today though. In FP3 I unfortunately crashed and had to use the second bike, which didn’t have the same settings. It wasn’t too bad and I knew that I had more pace than what I’d shown. In FP4 I made another step forward, so I was really happy with that. In Qualifying I was able to reduce my time by another 1.3 seconds. I think I could have done more but I made some mistakes on one lap. The race will be difficult because I’m still learning every lap, but I can’t wait. The crowd is incredible out there and the support is unbelievable – it’s just so nice to be doing this at home.”

Q1

Q1 had a few fast faces looking to move through, not least of all 2019 Silverstone winner Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar). But after the first runs it was Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama) leading the way, with a couple of tenths in hand over Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing).

The key drama then also came from Bastianini as the Italian, on another hot lap, lost the rear but somehow didn’t quite highside, nevertheless sliding out and that bringing out the Yellow Flags – cancelling the laps of Rins and Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol). Bastianini was up and ok and the track went green again, leaving one final push for those behind to try and oust the Italian.

Zarco and Rins did just that, the Suzuki taking over on top first before the Pramac rider pipped him, both leapfrogging Bastianini’s best to deny him a place in Q2.

Q2

After the first runs, Quartararo led Bagnaia led Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing), but there was some drama left in the tank. The first rider setting red sectors was Pol Espargaro and he took over on top, but Martin was on an absolute stunner – and shaved nine tenths off the number 44’s best in one fell swoop. But gaining over a second in one sector seemed a lot, even for the rookie sensation, and it turned out to be too much: Martin had cut the track, and the laptime was cancelled. So Pol Espargaro completed his impressive weekend so far with a first pole position at Repsol Honda, bouncing back in style from a difficult two weekends in Austria to pip ‘Pecco’ by just 0.022.

Bagnaia was bumped back up to second as Martin’s lap was cancelled, with Quartararo completing the front row after losing a little ground on Run 2, not able to find the grip he was expecting but still within an infinitesimal 0.036 of pole. Martin, nevertheless, takes fourth – and is therefore also top Independent Team rider.

The Grid

Pol Espargaro, Bagnaia and Championship leader Quartararo head up the grid, putting ‘Pecco’, the closest challenger, in a good position to try and deny El Diablo on Sunday. Martin heads up Row 2 ahead of Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), the eight-time World Champion beaten to it by just 0.012. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) completes the third row.

Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) had a tougher qualifying to line up seventh, 0.479 off the top, and the Aussie will be looking to make gains on Sunday. He’s joined by Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT) as the Doctor continues a good vein of form at Silverstone, taking P8, with Johann Zarco forced to settle for ninth.

That leaves Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Alex Rins and Joan Mir down in P10 and P11, respectively, with the 2019 Silverstone winner and the reigning Champion looking for a classic quick comeback into the podium fight tomorrow. Austrian GP winner Brad Binder (Red Bull KM Factory Racing) is P12.

Then come Bastianini, Luca Marini (Sky VR46 Avintia) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) in 15th.

2021 MotoGP Combined Qualifying

2021 MotoGP Standings

Moto2

Marco Bezzecchi (Sky Racing Team VR46) set a searing new lap record at Silverstone in Moto2, the Italian putting in a 2:03.988 to just deny Jorge Navarro (Lightech Speed Up) the honour. It really wasn’t by much either as just 0.073 separated the top two, with Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) taking third and still within only 0.081 of the top… over a whopping 6km lap.

Q1

Stefano Manzi (Flexbox HP 40) topped the session into the 2:04s, with rookie and recent podium finisher Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) next up as he just pipped teammate Somkiat Chantra. Joining the three moving through was Xavi Vierge (Petronas Sprinta Racing).

It was also announced just before the session that Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Italtrans Racing Team) was withdrawing from the GP after struggling with a shoulder injury.

Q2

It looked like Lowes was on for a home pole position and his third at the track in Moto2 until late on, and even including late on in the laps that Bezzecchi and Navarro were putting in. Bezzecchi was behind points leader Remy Gardner (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and setting yellow sectors until right at the line – when he and Gardner also got very close, the Italian still at full chat. And it was just enough, putting Bezzecchi provisional top and leaving it all up to Navarro.

The Spaniard was well within striking distance although not with red sectors, and he was the last rider in with a shout at denying Bezzecchi. Over the line he got incredibly close but had to settle for second by just 0.073, nevertheless denying Lowes P2.

The Grid

Bezzecchi, Navarro and Lowes head the grid, with Gardner forced to settle for the head of Row 2. He’s joined by teammate Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo), just 0.014 between the two. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) took sixth.

2019 Silverstone winner Augusto Fernandez (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) starts P7, with Aron Canet (Kipin Energy Aspar Moto2) and Vierge alongside. American Joe Roberts (Italtrans Racing Team) completes the top ten, retaining his step back towards the front.

Moto2 Combined Qualifying

Moto2 Championship Standings

Moto3

Romano Fenati (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) waited four years for another pole position, and now two have come at once! The Italian took to the top last time out in qualifying and he’s done it again at the Monster Energy British Grand Prix, making it a full house of sessions he’s led at Silverstone so far and this time with a new all-time lap record. His first back-to-back poles and the first time he’s taken four front row starts in a row bodes well, and key rivals Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Sergio Garcia (Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team) didn’t make it out of Q1, giving Fenati a clear goal on Sunday: gain some serious ground.

Gabriel Rodrigo (Indonesian Racing Gresini Moto3) was the rider just denied pole, within half a tenth despite coming through Q1, with Riccardo Rossi (BOW Owlride) taking his second ever front row in third.

Q1

Q1 had a fair share of headlines. With Championship leader Acosta AND closest challenger Garcia in the mix, and Fenati having shown such speed at Silverstone, it could prove crucial. And crucially, neither Acosta nor Garcia made it through, the latter crashing early to boot. They qualified down the order: Acosta in P22 and Garcia P24.

Rodrigo topped the session to head the charge, four tenths ahead of Carlos Tatay (Avintia Esponsorama Moto3), with Filip Salač (CarXpert PrüstelGP) and rookie Izan Guevara (Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team) also moving through.

One moment of drama saw Yuki Kunii (Honda Team Asia) collide with Kaito Toba (CIP Green Power), riders ok. Kunii was awarded a Long Lap penalty for the crash.

Q2

Rodrigo was holding on to provisional pole as the minutes ticked down, and the fastest rider in practice, Fenati, was leaving it late. After some yellow flags and his penultimate effort got cancelled, the Italian had one shot to take pole position and make it every session fastest at Silverstone… and he got it done. Ultimately by just 0.043, shuffling Rodrigo down to second as the Argentinean’s speed remained from Q1.

Third was a standout performance from Le Mans podium finisher Rossi, the Italian third fastest and taking his second ever front row start.

One rider fast so far this weekend who wasn’t able to feature in the fight for pole was Ayumu Sasaki (Red Bull KTM Tech3) as the Japanese rider crashed out early, rider ok,

The Grid

Fenati, Rodrigo and Rossi lock out the front row, with Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team) heading up Row 2. He’s joined by Niccolo Antonelli (Avintia VR46 Academy) – the only rider in the field previously on the podium at Silverstone – and Salač.

Jeremy Alcoba (Indonesian Racing Gresini Moto3) and Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) were seventh and eighth fastest, around half a second off the top, before a bigger gap back to Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) in ninth. Alcoba and Öncü, as rookies last year, race Moto3 at Silverstone for the first time.

Jaume Masia (Red Bull KTM Ajo) locked out the top ten.

Moto3 Combined Qualifying

Moto3 Championship Standings

2021 British Grand Prix – Silverstone Schedule

2021 FIM MotoGP World Championship calendar

(Subject to change)