Grand Prix of The Americas Q Results | Martin edges Miller, Ducati 1-2-3-4-5

Jorge Martin has secured his second pole position of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship season as he headed up a historic all-Ducati top five on the grid at Circuit of The Americas.

A timely turn around of fortunes for the Italian manufacturer after an indifferent start to the season, pole position looked to be heading the way of Jack Miller after the Australian unseated team-mate Pecco Bagnaia in the closing moments of Q2.

However, his hopes of a second career pole position - some four years after his one and only top spot achieved at the 2018 Argentina MotoGP - would be scuppered by a rampant Martin, who overturned a deficit coming into the final sector to edge his stablemate by 0.003s.

Emphasising his reputation as MotoGP’s qualifying specialist, Martin came through Q1 initially  before using the momentum to claim a sixth career pole in only his 18th MotoGP start.

His efforts gave him the honour of leading a landmark result for Ducati as it became the first manufacturer to lock out first to fifth on the grid with Martin and Miller being joined by Pecco Bagnaia - winner at COTA in 2021 - on the front row.

Johann Zarco headed up row two on the second of the Pramac Ducati bikes, with Enea Bastianini shrugging off a slip off early on in Q2 to recover to fifth on the grid aboard the Gresini Desmo.

Putting Ducati in an enviable position coming into Sunday’s race, Fabio Quartararo might have penetrated the stronghold had he not lost the front of the Yamaha while on a hot lap mid-way through the session. Returning to track before the end of the session, the defending champion recovered to sixth on the grid.

Joan Mir and Alex Rins head up row three, with the returning Marc Marquez leading the Honda challenge in ninth place from Takaaki Nakagami, VR46 Racing’s Luca Marini and Pol Espargaro.

A week on from the joy of celebrating both his first pole position and victory in MotoGP, new championship leader Aleix Espargaro was literally brought back down to earth with a bump with an off at Turn 8 that scuppered his hopes of breaking out of Q1.

The Spaniard gets underway from 13th with Aprilia team-mate Maverick Vinales alongside him in 14th, while Andrea Dovizioso goes from a season’s best 15th on the RNF Yamaha to out-qualify factory Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli, the Italian struggling in 19th.

Elsewhere, a dismal afternoon for KTM sees Brad Binder head up its challenge in a lowly 17th, with Miguel Oliveira, Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner - who together with Darry Binder were among those to crash - 20th, 21st and 22nd respctively. 

2022 Grand Prix of the Americas | Circuit of The Americas | Qualifying Results