Marc Marquez will start as favourite on Sunday after qualifying first for the Aragon Grand Prix in some style.
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But such was Marquez’s initial lap, 0.726s still separated Marquez and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, while Yamaha pair Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were 0.817s and 0.993s adrift in third and fourth.
Marquez was more than half a second faster than Maverick Vinales at the MotorLand circuit in northeastern Spain.
It seems like it could be a bit colder tomorrow so we will have to look at the tyres again, but I’m happy with everything else.
MotorLand marks the first opportunity for Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Brad Binder to take the title as the South African is 106 points clear at the top of the table, but he had a more hard session in Saturday afternoon to post the seventh quickest time.
Defending champion Jorge Lorenzo, who has won in Aragon, Spain for the past two seasons, was only fifth fastest, 0.771sec back. Alex Lowes (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), replacing injured Bradley Smith for the third time in a row, had a crash in FP3 and subsequently chose to stay off track on Saturday afternoon – with a decision on whether to race left for Sunday morning. Honda Team Asia rider Hiroki Ono was ninth quickest in a solid top ten performance, with that top ten completed by Dutch rookie Bo Bendsneyder for Red Bull KTM Ajo. This is the first time all MotoGP riders got to ride the Michelin tyres at Aragon.
Dovizioso’s factory Ducati team-mate Andrea Iannone has been ruled out of the weekend due to the back injury he sustained at Misano, and has been replaced by Michele Pirro – who wound up 15th.
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Marquez then claimed pole position by 0.631 seconds, despite not improving on his second run in qualifying. The “Doctor” had a hard day at the office, including a highside crash at Turn 9 in FP3. Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) just beat teammate Scott Redding to the third row, with the Pramac pair pushing Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) down to P11.
