Valencia MotoGP Qualifying Results: Quartararo beats Marquez to pole

Fabio Quartararo will start the final round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship from the sixth pole position of his rookie campaign as he edged out Marc Marquez and Jack Miller in Valencia.

Coming into the last race weekend of the season bidding to end his stunning rookie season with an elusive maiden MotoGP win, Quartararo prevailed in a tightly contested session with the only lap into the 1m 29s.

Even so, only two tenths covered the top four blanketing Quartararo, Marc Marquez, Jack Miller and Maverick Vinales, the quartet having been the quickest throughout the weekend and no doubt in close contention for victory come Sunday.

Franco Morbidelli gets away from fifth position, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, who will hope the combined might of himself and Danilo Petrucci – starting tenth – can score enough points for Ducati Corse to snatch it the teams’ title from Repsol Honda. For now, Ducati leads Repsol Honda by two points.

Joan Mir and Alex Rins double up for Suzuki on row three, the pair joined by Cal Crutchlow on the LCR Honda, with Pol Espargaro – who progressed through Q1 – starting 11th and a down on pace Valentino Rossi left floundering in 12th.

Johann Zarco just missed out on Q2 spot to leave him in 13th place from top Aprilia Aleix Espargaro and the retiring Jorge Lorenzo, who notched up one of his better starting positions of the year in 15th.

Elsewhere, Iker Lecuona was a noteworthy 19th out of the 22 taking part in his first-ever MotoGP qualifying session, while Pecco Bagnaia looks set to miss the final round after injuring his wrist in a bizarre FP3 tumble.

2019 Valencia MotoGP Qualifying Results & Grid Positions