Martin breaks lap record to claim second successive Red Bull Ring pole

Jorge Martin flew to a sensational second straight pole at the Red Bull Ring as he broke the lap record once again to head series leader Fabio Quartararo.

Martin had to grab his third pole of 2021 the hard way after crashing out on his final FP3 lap, stranding him down in 14^th and as a result forcing him to contest Q1 to try and capture one of the final two pole shootout berths.

The Spaniard easily made the cut with a rapid 1:23.197s tour as he lapped two-tenths clear of fellow Q1 graduate Miguel Oliveira, the KTM man relegating Suzuki’s Alex Rins at the death-thus forcing him to start 13^th once again as he did last weekend.

It was Quartararo though that stunned the field once Q2 got underway, the Frenchman banging in a blistering 1:22.677s on his first flying effort to lead Martin by three-and-a-half tenths and third-placed Johann Zarco by a monster seven-tenths-of-a -second.

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Quartararo’s benchmark looked near unbeatable such was his gap over the rest, and as each rider lined up to take a pop his time stood strong as most of the field struggled to even breach the 1:22 range.

Martin though had a little more still up his sleeve, the 2018 Moto3 world champion using team-mate Zarco as a marker to shoot to a 1:22.643s to head Quartararo by just 0.034s, a gambit ultimately just enough to take an incredible third pole of his rookie premier class campaign.

Francesco Bagnaia ended up third-albeit 0.420s down on fellow Ducati rider Martin-to complete the front row on his factory-run Desmosedici despite losing his first timed effort for a track limits infringement, while Saturday favourite given his Friday form Zarco had to make do with fourth.

Marc Marquez gritted his teeth to secure a strong fifth on the grid for the factory Honda organisation ahead of the second factory Ducati of Jack Miller, with Suzuki’s Joan Mir seventh.

Aleix Espargaro enjoyed a solid Saturday once again for Aprilia in eighth ahead of KTM duo Oliveira and Brad Binder, with Honda men Pol Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami completed the 12 riders that contested Q2.

Joining Rins towards the back of the grid was Alex Marquez on the second LCR Honda in 14^th, while Petronas SRT’s tough campaign continued as Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow could only manage 18^th and 20^th for Sunday’s Austrian encounter.