Qualifying was postponed after a serious incident in the previous Moto3 Q2 session, with the Swiss Jason Dupasquier being flown to the hospital in Florence for further examination.
Jack Miller was the fastest out of the early volley of the laps with 1: 45.796 minutes on his factory Ducati, although Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was ahead with 1: 45.651 minutes after using a tow of the Ducati from Francesco Bagnaia .
That time did not last long, however, as Quartararo – who was leading FP4 before qualifying – led his Yamaha to 1: 45.481 minutes to finish the first few runs as front runner.
On the hunt for his fourth pole in a row in 2021, Quartararo burst the field on his penultimate flying lap with a lap record of 1: 45.187 minutes.
This time went undisputed to the checkered flag, his closest rival Bagnaia 0.230 seconds behind.
Johann Zarco made a late attack to secure last front row spot on his Pramac Ducati, which left Aleix Espargaro – who made it through Q1 – a first MotoGP front row on the Aprilia in fourth.
Miller looked like he would be in the front row on his last lap, but with his 1: 45.5982 minutes he was only able to take fifth place ahead of KTM rider Brad Binder – his best qualifying of the year.
KTM teammate Miguel Oliveira finished seventh ahead of Suzuki duo Alex Rins and Joan Mir, while Petronas SRT’s Franco Morbidelli led Q1 pacesetter Marc Marquez and his Honda teammate Pol Espargaro.
Vinales was the biggest scalp to drop in Q1 after a late fall in FP3 and his strong pace during practice made him a target for the physically ailing Marc Marquez on the Honda to use as a reference.
Marquez followed Vinales on both of his runs in Q1, much to the chagrin of the Yamaha rider, with the Honda rider entering Q2 with 1: 45.924 minutes.
Vinales was thrown back from second to third by Aleix Espargaro late in Q1, but was on track to secure passage into the pole shootout – just for the Yamaha rider who made a mistake in the final corner and opened him up left behind the 13th starting place.
Vinales is only 0.021 seconds off Q2 and is supported in fifth row by Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini and Takaaki Nakagami from LCR Honda.
Pramac deputy Michele Pirro starts from 16th place in front of Avintia’s Luca Marini and the Tech 3 KTM of the 2019 Mugello race winner, Danilo Petrucci.
Valentino Rossi’s miserable return home continued in qualifying, the Petronas SRT driver only 19th ahead of Tech 3’s Iker Lecuona, Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori and Alex Marquez’s LCR Honda.
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