Aragon MotoGP: Marquez obliterates track record for pole, then crashes

Marquez and his closest challenger Jorge Lorenzo wasted no time at the start of Q2, with the latter posting by far his best time of the weekend on his first flying lap, a 1m47.080s.

That was already a tenth below Marquez’s record from last year, before the Repsol Honda rider trounced his adversary with a spellbinding 1m46.635s – a full 0.552s better than old record.

Marquez looked like going quicker on his second run, only to fall short by 0.040s, and then lost the front of his works RC213V at Turn 2 on his third and final run.

Lorenzo, despite setting an outright best first sector, was unable to dislodge Marquez from pole, missing out on the top spot by 0.108s.

Tech 3 Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro had looked like booking a slot on the front row after moving up to P3 in the latter stages, only to be denied by Ducati rider Andrea Iannone, who came within 0.543s of Marquez’s pole time despite having again dislocated his left shoulder in the run-up to the event.

That demoted Espargaro to the head of the second row ahead of Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi, who both simply had no answer to the searing pace of their respective teammates.

Aleix Espargaro was seventh on the best of the Suzukis, ahead of Cal Crutchlow’s LCR Honda and Q1 pacesetter Danilo Petrucci.

Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Yamaha) completed the top 10 ahead of Yonny Hernandez, who also came through Q1, and the second Suzuki of Maverick Vinales.

Andrea Dovizioso will start from 13th, a full 10 places behind Ducati teammate Iannone, after getting knocked out in Q1, having pulled into the pits after setting the quickest time – only for Pramac duo Hernandez and Petrucci to both beat him.

Qualifying results: