No one can beat Ducati: pole position for Miller and disappointment for Espargaró and Quartararo at the San Marino GP

Ducatis have long been the benchmark in the MotoGP World Championship, but their current dominance is unprecedented and seriously threatens the championship favorites with the summer break behind them.

At the San Marino GP, pole was taken by Jack Miller after a feast of downgrades in the face of changeable conditions and the threat of rain.

The Australian is the eighth poleman of the season, a fact that ties the record set in 2020 and further proof of the equality that reigns today in the category, although it is clear that the Italian factory has the most balanced and easy bike to squeeze for a squadron of nine pilots at Misano.

Pecco Bagnaia will start fifth despite setting the second fastest time.

The man from Turin, Fabio Quartararo's number one enemy, bothered Álex Márquez during practice on Friday and earned a three-position grid penalty.

"We joked about the sanction against Pecco, and we said that if I'm the one who does it, I get three years in prison," said the reigning champion, who could only be eighth this Saturday.

In three tests, the Borgo Panigale strut has cut 47 points from the Frenchman, and everything indicates that on Sunday (2:00 p.m., DAZN) the margin at the top of the championship will continue to shrink.

The one from Yamaha, who understands the fragility of his crown, could not take advantage of the sanction.

"We have to take advantage of everything, also of these things," he said.

Similar behaviors of other pilots have been punished this course with a long lap during the race.

Aleix Espargaró, who still precedes Bagnaia in the table and was ninth in qualifying, was also annoyed at the difference in criteria of some stewards that justified the timid sanction.

“I was also expecting a long-lap penalty, but according to what they told me, the first time you incur a situation like this, it's three places on the grid, while the second time you get the long lap.

What we want and ask is that the same script always be followed in the sanctions”.

“I was also expecting a long-lap penalty, but according to what they told me, the first time you incur a situation like this, it's three places on the grid, while the second time you get the long lap.

What we want and ask is that the same script always be followed in the sanctions”.

“I was also expecting a long-lap penalty, but according to what they told me, the first time you incur a situation like this, it's three places on the grid, while the second time you get the long lap.

What we want and ask is that the same script always be followed in the sanctions”.

A thriller from Miller!

👏#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 pic.twitter.com/OPp51r1Bxx

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 3, 2022

In his knife fight against the Italian army – four of his motorcycles led on Saturday – Quartararo wanted to point out an unusual collaborator, the injured but omnipresent Marc Márquez.

"I hope Marc comes back and is able to ruin Ducati's plans", he acknowledged now that the eighth world champion's return is drawing near.

The one from Cervera traveled to Misano on Friday night after verifying in two street tests in Aragón that his arm is ready to get on the competition bike.

He watched qualifying from Stefan Bradl's garage and continued to exchange impressions on the Honda with the technicians.

He was also seen cheering on his brother Álex, 17th and the first bike for the Japanese, after a crash in Q1.

As intended by his factory, he will participate in the key test next Tuesday on the same stage,

an essential day to develop the 2023 prototype with which he intends to return to the fight for the title.

If everything goes according to plan, the great benchmark of the championship could even be back at the Aragón GP on August 18.

Another of the protagonists of recent weeks, Jorge Martín, was left out of the fight for pole position and will start 13th with the desire to come back and vindicate himself.

Frustrated by Ducati's decision to leave him without a factory bike for the benefit of Enea Bastianini, third in qualifying and second on the grid, the man from Madrid did not hold back when explaining his vision of the events: "What makes me the most angry, or what I am most upset about is that it is as if they had not been inside the box, which is where everything is lived and they have only decided as if one person from the stands decides”.

Between now and the end of the season, he wants to win a Grand Prix to vindicate himself and start preparing for a very ambitious 2023, where he wants to become the first champion with a satellite team since Valentino Rossi, the myth and great absentee in the Rimini Riviera,

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