Bastianini takes pole in Austria as Bagnaia bounces back from crash / Photo: VLADIMIR SIMICEK - AFP
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Bastianini takes pole in Austria as Bagnaia bounces back from crash
Italian Enea Bastianini will start from pole for Ducati-Gresini in Sunday's Austrian MotoGP while compatriot Francesco Bagnaia grabbed second despite damaging his bike in morning practice on Saturday.
Bagnaia kept the pressure on series leader Fabio Quartararo, who was fifth fastest on his Yamaha.
Ducatis occupy the other five places on the first two rows at a track where they have dominated in recent years.
Bagnaia, who is third in the standings, is bidding to reduce the 49-point gap to defending world champion Quartararo after making inroads by winning the last two races.
"I am very happy for the front row," said Bagnaia.
Quartararo will start on the second row.
"I'm not happy with the grid position," he said. "Naturally, you want to be higher up the order than second row when you do one of the best hot laps of your life here, but doing 28 laps in a row will be different.
"Tomorrow's race is not going to be easy. We need a perfect start, perfect first lap, and do a good job with saving the tyres, and then we'll see what happens."
Bastianini, who rides for the Ducati-Gresini satellite team, shares the front row with the two factory Ducati riders, Bagnaia and Jack Miller.
Quartararo will start between the Pramac Ducatis of Spaniard Jorge Martin and Frenchman Johann Zarco.
"We are too much Ducatis on top for tomorrow," said Bastianini, before adding: "It will be a very hard race because Fabio is also really fast here."
Bagnaia slid out in the last free practice and started qualifying on a back-up bike as his pit crew repaired the damage.
"After the crash I did some laps but was not happy with the other bike. Qualifying was tough but I'm happy with the result.
"I want to say a big thanks to my team they have done an incredible job to make it possible to use the bike after the crash."
For Bastianini it was his first pole position since 2018 in Moto3.
"I am very happy, many times for me without pole position," he said. "This is my first in MotoGP."
Bastianini won three times in the first seven races this season but has not been on the podium in the other 10.
Miller was also happy with the way the Ducatis were running.
"The bike's working fantastic as you can tell," the Australian said.
"It shows the quality of rider they have on these bikes but also how well the bike is working."
"The big show is tomorrow. Now it's time to analyse what sort of choices we're going to make on those round black things," he added, pointing at his tyres.
Spaniard Aleix Espargaro, who is second in the championship standings, will start ninth.
P.Ries--LiLuX
