Marc Marquez took his 64th career pole position after a stunning performance in qualifying in Aragon, the Honda rider dominating for top spot.
The Spaniard has demonstrated some seriously strong pace throughout practice, both over a single lap and in race simulations. Marquez wasted no time when QP2 started to assert his authority, taking top spot with a 1m47.117s to go 1.5 seconds clear of the field.
As it turned out, that very first flying lap would be good enough to claim the Spaniard his fourth straight Aragon pole as no-one else could get even remotely close to the Honda rider.
Maverick Vinales put in a strong lap right at the end of the session to put his Suzuki second on the grid, though some seven and a half tenths adrift of pole position. The Spaniard will be pretty happy with that lap, however, as it proved that the GSX-RR has gotten over its rear grip issues in hotter conditions.
Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was in the wilderness in this morning’s FP3, though the Spaniard was on much better form in qualifying. Lorenzo guided his YZR-M1 to third to complete an all Spanish front row.
Andrea Dovizioso was set to take his first top three qualifying result since Austria, but missed out by just a few hundredths of a second at the drop of the chequered flag and will start fourth. The Italian was tipped by many in the paddock as MotoGP’s potential ninth different winner in 2016, and given that he worked hard with the softer tyres in FP4, a second row start gives the Ducati rider a good shot at fulfilling those bets.
Cal Crutchlow will be furious with himself after crashing out at Turn 1 in the final minute of the session whilst fighting for the front row. The LCR Honda rider had put in some impressive laps on the satellite RC213V to get himself into the top three before falling off. Clinging onto third as he began his doomed final flying lap, he was knocked back to fourth by Vinales before Dovizioso kicked him whilst he was down and pushed him back to fifth.
Twitter: Both @calcrutchlow & @26_DaniPedrosa have gone down in the final minutes. Both OK..
Final times inbound! #AragonGP https://t.co/IQ7J0LrSik (@MotoGP)
Valentino Rossi will be left scratching his head after only managing sixth in qualifying. The Italian was three tenths adrift of the front row on a 1m47.951s and will have to dig deep tomorrow if he is to get on terms with his teammate, with whom he is embroiled in a battle for second in the championship.
Dani Pedrosa’s charge was halted in the closing stages of the session when he crashed at Turn 15, the Spaniard starting tomorrow’s 23-lap Aragon Grand Prix from seventh. Aleix Espargaro was eighth on the second of the Suzukis ahead of Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci and Scott Redding, the Ducati pairing split by just eight thousandths of a second.
Pol Espargaro’s woeful day culminated in a disappointing 11th on the sole Tech 3 bike contesting qualifying. The Spaniard suffered two big crashes in FP3, which left him with some pain in his leg. Teammate Alex Lowes was absent after suffering damage to his left foot in a crash this morning. The Briton will undergo further assessment tomorrow before a decision is made on whether he will participate in the race or not.
Stefan Bradl completed the top 12, his best result of the season, after impressively taking his RS-GP Aprilia into QP2 for the first time. The German put in a stellar lap of 1m48.622s in QP1 to narrowly hold onto second in the session and progress through to QP2 alongside Petrucci.
Alvaro Bautista, who contested QP2 for Aprilia last time out at Misano, was 14th. A few hundredths behind him was Aspar’s Yonny Hernandez, who out-qualified teammate Eugene Laverty in 16th for the sixth time in 2016. Michele Pirro will start 17th after a crash late in QP1 stopped him from improving up the order.
Tito Rabat was only two tenths quicker than temporary teammate Nicky Hayden in 18th, whilst Loris Baz gritted his teeth to complete the top 20. If Lowes is declared fit to ride tomorrow he will start from 21st and last on the grid.
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