Record-setting Zarco on pole at ‘mythical’ Silverstone

Ducati Pramac Racing’s French rider Johann Zarco (right) rides next to Ducati Gresini Racing’s Italian rider Enea Bastianini during the MotoGP qualifying session of the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, central England, yesterday. (AFP)

Ducati’s French rider Johann Zarco clocked a new track record to grab pole for the British MotoGP in qualifying at Silverstone yesterday as Aleix Espargaro took an honourable sixth after a high-speed crash.Zarco claimed his second prime grid position of the season and eighth in MotoGP in style with a lap of 1min 57.767sec to smash the former track record of 1min 58.168sec set by the absent Marc Marquez.“It’s a mythical circuit and it makes me proud to feel comfortable around it,” said the man of the moment who has given himself the perfect platform to land his maiden MotoGP success.Zarco, who rides for Ducati’s satellite Pramac team, is joined on the front row for today’s race by Maverick Vinales of Aprilia, just 0.098s behind, and Jack Miller on a factory Ducati.World champion and series leader Fabio Quartararo took fourth on the grid for this 12th round of the 20-race season.The French rider must serve a long lap penalty during the race as punishment for a collision with Espargaro at Assen before the break. The Yamaha star said that after putting together one of his best qualifying laps of the season “I had nothing else to give”.“I’m happy with my race pace from final practice so that’s very positive,” he added.“Our pace means we will be fighting for the win, but with my penalty I can’t say where I’ll end up finishing.”Quartararo has for company on the second row the Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia and Espargaro’s Aprilia.This was a stoic performance from Espargaro who competed in qualifying despite suffering a heavy fall earlier in the day.The 33-year-old, who had just set the fastest time in the third practice session, flew off his bike entering a fast corner at 115mph (185kph) in the fourth session. Medics rushed to his aid, moving him on to a stretcher. But in spite of being visibly stunned by the impact, Espargaro was able to walk to the medical centre, albeit with support on either side. He sits 21 points behind Yamaha’s world championship leader Quartararo heading into this first race since the mid-summer break, with Zarco third, a further 37 points adrift.Quartararo won here last year and is trying to break a statistical oddity of the British MotoGP.No one has won the race twice in a row since Jorge Lorenzo in 2012 and 2013, a total of seven races because the 2018 (heavy rain) and 2020 (Covid-19) events were cancelled. Former Silverstone lap record holder and six-time MotoGP champion Marquez, meanwhile, is continuing his recovery from a latest stint of surgery on the broken arm he suffered in a crash in the Spanish Grand Prix in 2020. He is due for an important medical check up in mid-August after which an idea of when he can return to his day job should become clearer.Grid positionsFront row1. Johann Zarco (FRA/Ducati-Pramac) 1min 57:767sec, 2. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Aprilia) at 0.098sec, 3. Jack Miller (AUS/Ducati) 0.1642nd row4. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha) 0.171, 5. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA/Ducati) 0.194, 6. Aleix Espargaro (ESP/Aprilia) 0.1993rd row7. Marco Bezzecchi (ITA/Ducati-VR46) 0.334, 8. Enea Bastianini (ITA/Ducati-Gresini) 0.339, 9. Jorge Martin (ESP/Ducati-Pramac) 0.4074th row10. Luca Marini (ITA/Ducati-VR46) 0.550, 11. Alex Rins (ESP/Suzuki) 0.551, 12. Joan Mir (ESP/Suzuki) 0.776