Factory Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo claimed his fifth pole position of the 2025 MotoGP season in the Australian Grand Prix, as Ducati’s streak of front-row starts in MotoGP came to an end.
Heading to Saturday’s qualifying session, Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi was the favourite for pole position, having topped Friday practice by almost three tenths of a second.
In the second half of Q2, he shot to the top with an impressive time of 1m26.496s, which was just a shade slower than the record time he had set in practice in hotter conditions on Friday afternoon.
However, 2021 champion Quartararo pulled something special out of the bag seconds after the chequered flag was waved, going under the circuit record with a 1m26.465s.
This marked the continuation of Yamaha’s improved form at Phillip Island, and followed Quartararo’s third-place qualifying effort in San Marino last month.
Bezzecchi hung on to second place, but will have to serve a double long lap penalty in Sunday’s race for causing a collision in Indonesia last time out.
Home favourite Jack Miller came from Q1 to secure his first front-row performance of the year, ending third with a best effort of 1m26.708s on his Pramac-entered Yamaha.
Raul Fernandez ended up fourth on the Trackhouse Aprilia, while Pedro Acosta qualified a solid fifth on the KTM.
Gresini rider Alex Marquez endured a wretched qualifying as he crashed twice in Q2, first at Turn 4 and then late on at Turn 1. However, having set the early pace in the session, the younger Marquez still ended up as the top Ducati in sixth.
But this does mean that Ducati’s streak of front-row starts stretching back to Valencia 2020 came to an end, with Marc Marquez absent from the weekend and no other rider from Borgo Panigale stepping up in his absence.
Jack Miller, Pramac Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Alex Marquez’s team-mate and Indonesia winner Fermin Aldeguer finished just behind in seventh, while Fabio di Giannantonio qualified a distant 10th for VR46 and factory rider Francesco Bagnaia could only manage 11th with a time that was over eight tenths of the pace.
Between Aldeguer and di Giannantonio, KTM wildcard Pol Espargaro qualified eighth, with Luca Marini grabbing ninth place on the top Honda.
Yamaha’s Alex Rins was 12th and slowest among Q2 runners.
The fifth row of the grid will be shared by the KTM of Brad Binder and Honda riders Joan Mir and Johann Zarco.
Update: Both Bagnaia and Binder have been handed three-place grid penalties for riding slowly and impeding other riders in qualifying.
Bagnaia will now start the race from 14th on the grid, with Binder demoted to 16th place.
Australian GP – Q2 results:
Q1 results:
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– The Autosport.com Team
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