Vinales grabs pole with lap record; Binder on second row

Maverick Vinales took pole position at Misano for the second straight week in qualifying Saturday for the Emilia-Romagna MotoGP.

In last weekend's San Marino Grand Prix, the Spaniard who rides for Yamaha, could not capitalise and finished sixth.

"I feel much better than the other race," said Vinales after posting a lap record of 1min 31.077sec. "I feel really good for Sunday, I think we have improved the bike a lot since last Sunday."

Italian Francesco Bagnaia of Ducati-Pramac recorded a faster time at the end of the session, becoming the first rider to dip under 1min 31sec, but he touched the out-of-bounds green paint with both tyres on the final corner and his time was scrubbed out

Australian Jack Miller on the other Pramac was second, Frenchman Fabio Quartararo on a Yamaha-SRT completed the front row of the grid.

Miller, who had a fall in morning practice, had been outside the top ten after practice so had to go through pre-qualifying to earn one of two places in the final shootout for the front four rows.

"We did it the hard way but we're here," said the Australian.

Quatararo lost the championship lead after he failed to finish last week.

"It was my goal to start on the front row," he said.

Andrea Dovizioso who took over the championship lead last weekend, was only 12th fastest.

Brad Binder will start the race from sixth position, his best ever qualifying result in the premier class.

GRID

Front row
1. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) 1min 31.077sec, 2. Jack Miller (AUS/Ducati-Pramac) at 0.076, 3. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha-SRT) 0.145

Second row
4. Pol Espargaro (ESP/KTM) 0.231, 5. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA/Ducati-Pramac) 0.236, 6. Brad Binder (RSA/KTM) 0.312

Third row
7. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) 0.359, 8. Franco Morbidelli (ITA/Yamaha-SRT) 0.489, 9. Danilo Petrucci (ITA/Ducati) 0.497

Fourth row
10. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Ducati) 0.504, 11. Joan Mir (ESP/Suzuki) 0.540, 12. Takaaki Nakagami (JPN/Honda-LCR) 1.207