Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo starts the 2021 MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix on pole position at Jerez, pipping stablemate Franco Morbidelli on the Petronas SRT Yamaha by 0.057s. Quartararo was the fastest after the initial set of laps in Q2 and was quick to improve his time to the pole-setting 1m36.755s. Starting third on the grid is Ducati's Jack Miller, who was promoted into a Q2 slot despite ending FP3 in 11th place after Morbidelli had a lap cancelled after the session for exceeding track limits.
Leading the second row is Francesco Bagnaia, who starts 0.205s behind the pole-sitter. LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami was the fastest of all Hondas and starts at P5 ahead of Pramac Ducati's Johann Zarco, while Yamaha's Maverick Vinales was relegated to the third row at P7.
Aprilia's Aleix Espagaro starts at P8 after finishing in the top three during Friday's sessions and coming into qualifying fifth overall. Meanwhile, Suzuki riders Alex Rins and Joan Mir have their work cut out starting from P9 and P10 respectively.
KTM's Brad Binder followed Morbidelli through Q1 but only had one fresh soft tyre for Q2 as a result. Nevertheless, he was still ahead of the rest of the Hondas of Stefan Bradl, Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez. The Honda champion managed to make it P14 in his second race since the comeback, and after a nasty crash during FP3.
Marc Marquez had one of the worst qualifying sessions of his career and starts at P14
Miguel Oliveira of KTM starts at P16 after his final lap was cancelled. This elevated Enea Bastianini on the Avintia Ducati to P15. Valentino Rossi has a slow start from P17 as he struggled with the lack of rear grip. Incidentally, he is only one place over half-brother Luca Marini.
Lastly, Danilo Petrucci of Tech3 KTM starts at P19, followed by LCR's Alex Marquez and Tech3's Iker Lecuona. Aprilia's Lorenzo Savadori and Pramac stand-in Tito Rabat complete the grid.
