Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > Front row for Pecco Bagnaia, third in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring. Jack Miller will start from Row 2, from the sixth spot on the grid tomorrow

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MotoGP | Round 11 - Austrian GP 2021 | Saturday 14 August 2021

Front row for Pecco Bagnaia, third in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring. Jack Miller will start from Row 2, from the sixth spot on the grid in tomorrow's Austrian GP

• Jorge Martín, poleman at the Styrian GP, takes the top spot again in qualifying at the Austrian GP with the Ducati Desmosedici GP of the Pramac Racing Team

Francesco Bagnaia finished in third place in this afternoon's qualifying session for the MotoGP Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring. Eighth, at the end of Friday's free practice, the Ducati Lenovo Team rider confirmed a spot directly into Q2 by topping the timesheets in this morning's FP3 and closing the first three free practice sessions in second place overall. After demonstrating an excellent race pace in FP4, Pecco took to the track shortly afterwards for the official qualifying, where he posted the third fastest time in 1:23.063, 420 thousandths off the pole.

Jack Miller, sixth after FP3, will start from the second row of the grid in tomorrow's Austrian GP. The Australian rider could not take 100% advantage of his time attack and closed with the best time of 1:23.320, 0.677 off the top of the timesheet, ending qualifying in sixth place.

Jorge Martín took pole position again for the eleventh Grand Prix of the 2021 MotoGP season. The Pramac Racing Team rider, poleman last week and recent winner of the Styrian GP finished in first place with a time of 1:22.643, improving on the circuit record.

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) - 3rd (1:23.063)
"I'm pretty happy with the result in qualifying: our objective was to get on the front row, and we did it. Unfortunately, this afternoon I wasn't able to improve on my best lap time from FP3. Compared to this morning's session, I didn't have a great grip today, and I struggled a lot. In FP4, we were quite fast with used tyres, and my pace was good. Tomorrow we'll try to improve again, but in general, we did a good job".

Jack Miller (#43 Ducati Lenovo Team) - 6th (1:23.320)
"I expected to be able to do more today in qualifying, but this afternoon I didn't feel completely comfortable on the bike: it was sliding a lot, and that didn't allow me to improve. Starting from the second row, from the sixth position, isn't bad, so I'm optimistic and confident for tomorrow's race".

The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back on track tomorrow at 9:40 am for the warm-up, while the Austrian GP will get underway at 2 pm local time on a 28-lap distance.