Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > Miller and Bagnaia will start from the second row of the grid in the Doha GP

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MotoGP | Round 2 - Doha GP 2021 | Saturday 3 April 2021

Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia will start from the second row of the grid in the Doha GP

• The two riders of the Ducati Lenovo Team closed fourth and sixth respectively in qualifying for the Grand Prix of Doha, scheduled for tomorrow at Losail;
• Jorge Martín, in his second MotoGP Grand Prix, took his maiden pole position with the Desmosedici GP of the Pramac Racing Team, followed by teammate Johann Zarco.

Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia will start respectively from the fourth and sixth position on the grid in tomorrow's Grand Prix of Doha at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar.

Sure that he had already advanced through to Q2 with the fastest time from yesterday, which remained unbeaten at the end of free practices, Miller didn’t take part in FP3 this afternoon as it was disrupted by strong winds and sand on the track. In this evening's qualifying session, the Australian rider ended with the fourth fastest time in 1:53.303, just 197 thousandths off Martín’s pole position and, therefore, he will start the race from the second row of the grid. Bagnaia, second at the end of FP3 with his fastest lap from yesterday, ended with the sixth fastest time (1:53.654) in qualifying and will also start from Row 2 in tomorrow’s race.

The two Desmosedici GP bikes of the Pramac Racing Team will start from the front row as Jorge Martín, at his second MotoGP Grand Prix, took his first outstanding pole position in the category in 1:53.106 while, his teammate Johann Zarco will start from second position thanks to his fastest lap in qualifying in 1:53.263.

Jack Miller (#43 Ducati Lenovo Team) - 1:53.303 (4th)
"Unfortunately, the track conditions weren’t ideal this evening, and I wasn't able to take full advantage of my flying lap. Despite that, I'm satisfied with the fourth place in qualifying: last week in the race, I made a good start and recovered several positions immediately, so I think I can repeat that tomorrow. It will be an unpredictable race: it will be crucial to stay calm in the early stages to understand how to tackle the rest of the competition. I have my strategy, and tomorrow we will see if it works”.

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) - 1:53.654 (6th)
“Unfortunately, this evening, I wasn’t able to take full advantage of the soft tyre, but I’m still pretty happy with the sixth place in qualifying. In FP4, with used tyres, I was able to do several laps with a good pace, and in the last couple of days, I have also been working a lot on my riding style to try to adjust it and be more competitive in the second half of the race. I think I have all the potential to do another good race tomorrow.”

The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back on track tomorrow, Sunday 4th April, at 3:40 pm (CEST +1.00) for the warm-up session ahead of the race (22 laps) scheduled at 8:00 pm local time.