Johann Zarco and Álex Márquez secured the last two spots in the second qualifying of the MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix. The riders were the fastest in Q1 on Saturday in Losail, with the top four separated by just over a tenth of a second.
After the initial flying laps, Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac/Ducati) led, with Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha) in second. Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) was third and, at that point, narrowly missed out on making it to Q2.
A crash by Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) led to yellow flags, preventing the riders from improving their times on their second flying laps before returning to the pits.
In the last five minutes, there was a turnaround in the timesheet, with Álex Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) moving into the qualifying positions… before Zarco returned to the top with a new record lap (1m52.382s). The Frenchman was 55 thousandths of a second faster than Márquez.
Until the end, the top two positions remained unchanged. Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team/Ducati) was just 67 thousandths away from making it to Q2 but ended up in third place.
Results: