In his RNF debut, Aprilia's satellite team, Miguel Oliveira, after passing the first qualifying round (Q1), secured fourth place on the starting grid for the two races of the weekend, with a time of 1,37,521 minutes .

In the last attempt, Marc Márquez, six times world champion in the main category, achieved the best time in Q2, in 1,37.226 minutes, breaking the record of the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and achieving the 64th 'pole' of his career in MotoGP .

After the difficulties felt the day before, in the first free practices, in which he was outside the top-10, Márquez admitted to not knowing what had happened.

"Today was better, we will start from 'pole position' in the afternoon [in the sprint race] and Sunday [in the Grand Prix] and that is important. The race will be very difficult, against the Ducati, which have a very high pace, but we started ahead, which is already a great advantage", he said.