| Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Valentino Rossi had the fans on the edge of their seats in today’s Q2 session. He left his best time-attack effort until his very last lap to secure 2nd place on the grid for tomorrow’s Monster Energy Grand Prix České republiky. Maverick Viñales breezed through Q1 but was unable to get hold of the same feeling in Q2 and took 12th position.
Rossi was eager to reproduce the P1 result he set in this morning’s FP3 session, especially since he loves the Automotodrom Brno so much. The Italian let most riders leave ahead of him before making his way down pit lane. His second hot lap put him in tenth place, but he knew he could push more.
He arrived back in the pitbox with six and a half minutes on the clock. After a quick stop the Doctor was ready for his final run and had time for two more tries. Though his first attempt didn’t succeed, he started the second with a red sector, followed by personal bests in the remaining three. This resulted in a strong 1’54.956s, moving him up from twelfth to second place, with a 0.267s gap to pole.
Viñales had to come through Q1 but did so without much opposition from the other riders. His first flyer, a 1’56.109s, put him in first place. The youngster then returned to the pit box with slightly less than eight minutes remaining.
Two minutes later he returned out on track for his second run. He upped his level even further, setting four red sectors to clock a 1’55.538s, putting him more than 0.6s ahead of the field for the time being. The number 25 rider kept pushing but was unable to improve. Nevertheless, he safely came through Q1 with a 0.314s advantage.
A brief stop later, he headed back out for the second qualifying. His initial attempt, a 1’55.823s, put him in seventh place, but he dropped to tenth as the pace quickened. The Spaniard stuck to the same strategy as in Q1 and made his way back to pit lane early, with eight minutes remaining.
With six minutes on the clock he headed back out, eager to climb the rankings. However, he was unable to make a further improvement and ended Q2 in 12th place, 1.134s from the top.
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