The British Grand Prix will be a spicy dish! In the last 10 seconds before the finish flag, everything that happened the day before and today are crossed out. The hero of the day is Aleix Espargaro, but things turned out to be much more interesting for Quarararo: he did not fulfill his task at Q2 in Silverstone.
To begin with, there was an event on FP4 that could radically change the course of the championship. Ales Espargaro caught a hefty high side at turn 12 and ended up at the Silverstone Circuit Medical Center. He was unable to get to his feet and was taken to the doctor on a stretcher. Espargaro was clearly in shock after a high flight and a hard landing in the asphalt safety zone.
The high side happened… predictably: the day before, speaking to reporters, Jack Miller noted that he would not put a Hard slick back – in Silverstone, this could lead to a high side on the gas discharge. It seems that this is exactly what Espargaro caught!..
The medical center, however, was encouraging: the X-ray did not reveal any fractures in Aleix, and he decided to return to work immediately. The medical director of MotoGP, Angel Charte, once again made sure that the patient was not joking and gave him the “green light”. Angel personally helped Espargaro to reach the team scooter, which was waiting at the exit of the medical center, helped the pilot to sit on it, and blessed him.
Aleix missed most of the Q2 qualifying, but when he got on the track, from the second round… broke out to the 1st position. This happened a minute and a half before the appearance of the checkered flag.
Espargaro gave 1:57.966, the first to go inside 1:57. And he moved Fabio Quartararo, who had previously been leading with 1:58.259.
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The heroic move of Aleix Espargaro changed the whole balance of power in TOP 5. But this is not the end of qualifying: Quartararo, Miller, Vinales, Zarco, and Martin have about a minute left to fix the situation.
Miller managed to beat Aleix. Less than 30 seconds after Aprilia got into the 1st position, the first Ducati reached the top of the list: Miller drove a lap in 1:57.931, and Zarco finished behind him, who managed even more – 1:57.767. Quartararo drove behind them and also jumped over Espargaro, but the last to say his word said Maverick Vinales – he passed on the 2nd line with 1:57.865.
After qualifying, Zarko stated that he was incredibly lucky on that lap: “There was a completely clean track in front of me on the whole lap, no one tried to catch up with me, but no one held me back – I drove a perfectly clean lap!”
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Maverick Vinales was glowing with happiness: “Finally, the work that we have been doing for the last 5 months has begun to bear fruit. It was a good, solid fast lap without complications!”
The pilots on the first two lines found themselves inside the absolute lap record set by Marc Marquez in 2019 (1:58.168). As a result, Ducati managed to turn the tide of the weekend: Zarco, Miller, and Bagnaia will start from the capital lines, and Bezzecchi, Bastianini, and Martin were on the 3rd.
Rinse and Joan Mir, whom Bagnaia feared, closed the 4th line.
The worst news, of course, for Fabio Quartararo: he will have to start the race from the 4th position surrounded by the strongest rivals, including Bagnaia, and then he will have to drive a Long Lap Penalty after three laps of the race. The task of starting from the first line has not been completed. And he is unlikely to pass Joan Zarco, Maverick Vinales, and Jack Miller in the first laps.
For Yamaha, this is another, perhaps the worst qualification: Andrea Dovizioso and Darrin Binder will close the starting grid in positions 24 and 23, and Morbidelli will start the race from the 20th position.
British MotoGP Grand Prix Qualifying Results (6/08/2022):
