Aragon MotoGP: Marquez slays opposition for sixth 2016 pole

Marquez led the times from the very start of the crucial Q2 session, and his 1m47.117s that was set on his first flying lap proved unbeatable.

His Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa was the man most likely to do so, but he fell heavily in the closing stages of the only lap that might have threatened Marquez. Pedrosa will start back on the third row in seventh.

Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales and Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo will join Marquez on the front row tomorrow, ahead of Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.

Story of the session

Marquez – who crashed this morning in FP3 – set the pace from the get-go, a 1m47.117s that was over 1.5s clear of the field in the opening five minutes.

Cal Crutchlow was the first man to get within a quarter of a second of him on his LCR Honda, before running off at Turn 2.

Lorenzo’s first serious effort was 1m47.934s, enough for third and ahead of teammate Valentino Rossi’s 1m48.110s.

On the final runs, Crutchlow crashed out at Turn 1 and Pedrosa went down at Turn 15, on a lap that was close to Marquez’s pole time.

Vinales jumped to second on 1m47.748s, 0.631s away from Marquez, and Lorenzo jumped to third on 1m48.778s.

Dovizioso will start fourth for Ducati, ahead of Crutchlow, Rossi and Pedrosa.

Suzuki’s Aleix Espargaro qualified eighth, ahead of the Pramac Ducatis of Danilo Petrucci and Scott Redding.

Pol Espargaro (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Aprilia’s Stefan Bradl, who, like Petrucci, progressed from Q1, will start 11^th and 12 respectively.

Avintia Ducati’s Hector Barbera will start 13^th, ahead of Alvaro Bautista, Yonny Hernandez and Eugene Laverty – who fell during the FP4 session.

Ducati factory rider Michele Pirro, subbing again for Andrea Iannone, crashed into the barrier at Turn 8 late on in Q1.

Alex Lowes sat out the session after picking up a left-foot injury in an FP3 crash.

Qualifying results

Pos.	#	Driver	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'47.117
2	25	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki	1'47.748	0.631
3	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1'47.778	0.661
4	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'47.819	0.702
5	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'47.843	0.726
6	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'47.951	0.834
7	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'48.017	0.900
8	41	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	1'48.230	1.113
9	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'48.236	1.119
10	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'48.242	1.125
11	44	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha	1'48.448	1.331
12	6	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	1'49.083	1.966
13	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'48.699
14	19	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	1'48.904
15	68	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	1'48.954
16	50	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	1'49.052
17	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	1'49.139
18	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	1'49.319
19	69	Nicky Hayden	Honda	1'49.490
20	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	1'49.841