Martin surprised within the Doha GP when he claimed his maiden pole in MotoGP and added a second to his tally on the Crimson Bull Ring on Saturday, posting the primary ever sub-1m23s lap of the circuit to say high spot after a late effort for Quartararo was scrubbed for exceeding monitor limits.
Having missed 4 races with damage, this weekend’s Styrian GP marks solely the sixth MotoGP begin for Martin.
Fabio Quartararo didn’t mess about on his opening salvo of laps, shifting virtually six tenths away from Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales with a 1m23.259s on his first lap.
The championship chief then improved to a 1m23.075s to increase his benefit, although this lap did come underneath menace from Pramac’s Martin earlier than the Ducati rider made a mistake on the penultimate nook and had his time cancelled.
After the primary runs in Q2, Quartararo led Ducati duo Jack Miller and Martin, his benefit 0.225s on the head of the timesheets.
With slightly below 4 minutes to go, Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia edged forward of Quartararo with a 1m23.038s.
However this didn’t stand for lengthy as Martin lit up the timing screens on the primary flying lap of his second run to provide the primary ever sub 1m23s lap of the Crimson Bull Ring on a MotoGP bike with a 1m22.994s.
Quartararo saved shaving day off his deficit to Martin throughout his remaining flying lap and posted a 1m22.958s to edged forward of Martin.
However the Yamaha rider obtained off form at Flip 9 and went out of monitor limits, which led to his lap being cancelled and dropped him to 3rd.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Manufacturing facility Racing
Photograph by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Bagnaia will begin from second on his manufacturing facility staff Ducati having missed pole by 0.044s, together with his team-mate Jack Miller heading row two in fourth.
World champion Joan Mir took his finest qualifying results of the season in fifth on a GSX-RR fitted with the journey peak adjuster machine – although a crash in FP4 on that bike virtually robbed of the prospect to utilise the brand new merchandise in Q2.
Johann Zarco completes row two on the second of the Pramac Ducatis, with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro heading row three in seventh forward of Marc Marquez after a late crash at Flip 3 for the Honda rider.
Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales was a disappointing ninth having ended FP3 third-fastest, with LCR Honda duo Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Marquez, and the KTM of Miguel Oliveira – the latter two coming via Q1 – finishing the highest 12.
Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini shot to the highest of the order proper on the finish of Q1, however was cruelly denied a spot in Q2 having been deemed to have exceeded monitor limits at Flip 8.
As an alternative, the Italian will begin Sunday’s race from twentieth on the grid, whereas Suzuki’s Alex Rins was just some hundredths outdoors of a Q2 place in thirteenth.
He’ll begin alongside KTM wildcard Dani Pedrosa, who was a formidable 14th in his first qualifying session since 2018, whereas Honda’s Pol Espargaro will begin fifteenth.
Brad Binder was slightly below half a second shy of his team-mate Oliveira in Q1 however must begin from sixteenth forward of Petronas SRT’s Valentino Rossi and his Avintia Ducati-mounted half-brother Luca Marini.
Iker Lecuona was nineteenth on the Tech3 KTM forward of Bastianini and Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori, who crashed at Flip 8 on the finish of the session.
Danilo Petrucci (Tech3) and SRT stand-in Cal Crutchlow on the two-year-old Yamaha accomplished the sector.
MotoGP Styrian Grand Prix – Qualifying outcomes
Q2 outcomes
Q1 outcomes