Marquez Takes Stunning Pole Despite Late Crash - Lorenzo Starts Alongside

Sep 26, 2015
4 min read

Marc Marquez will start tomorrow's 23-lap Aragon Grand Prix from pole position after a record lap of the five-kilometre MotorLand circuit.

The Repsol Honda rider came into qualifying having topped the time sheets in FP3, so was favourite to clinch top spot in the fifteen-minute QP2 session. Marquez wasted no time in sending his statement of intent to the rest of the field by taking provisional pole on his first flying lap with a record lap of 1:46.635.

Marc still had more time in him and quickly made his way back to his box to switch bikes. He was set to go quicker again by almost two tenths, but lost a fraction in the final sector. With one lap left in him, he threw his RC213V at the opening sequence of bends. Pushing for all he was worth, Marquez pushed too hard into turn two and slid into the gravel.

Just at that moment Jorge Lorenzo crossed the timing beam of sector one several thousandths under the fastest lap. He too was running a three run strategy, getting to within half a-tenth of his compatriot's time on his previous effort. But Lorenzo could not keep his momentum going through the following sectors and stayed 2nd.

This is Marc's 57th career pole position, putting him 4th on the list of all-time qualifiers.

Though not the pole that he wanted, Lorenzo still has plenty of reasons to be happy with his work. Valentino Rossi qualified at the back of the second row in 6th, ordinarily a decent effort by his standards. But with the pace of both Honda riders and his team-mate Lorenzo, the championship leader needed a front row to have a shot at beating Lorenzo.

Instead, he'll have to contend with Pol Espargaro and Andrea Iannone, as well as Dani Pedrosa at the start. The former don't have the pace to run with the leaders, but they can cause a big delay for them – like we saw in Brno – and that will be a major disaster for Rossi if Lorenzo takes the lead at the start.

The Ducati rider's lap of 1:47.178 may be over seven tenths off the pace, but it is no less a superhuman effort. Iannone is really suffering with his dislocated shoulder, and a track like Aragon is not the best place for such an injury. Despite this he starts as top Ducati, completely putting his team-mate Dovizioso to shame after he qualified a lowly 13th. To make matter worse for Dovi, he was knocked out of QP1 by both Pramac riders!

Suzuki had an excellent afternoon, which is in stark contrast to where they were after FP1 on Friday. The warmer track temperatures and the white-banded soft rear Bridgestone helped Aleix Espargaro to a very respectable 7th, whilst Maverick Vinales qualified 12th. Their prospects for the race still don't look terribly positive; the kilometre back straight and uphill acceleration zones will see them gobbled up into the pack at the start.

Bradley Smith suffered a mystifying loss of form this afternoon and was only 10th. Given that he was running strongly in the top six for much of the weekend leading up to qualifying, clearly the Tech 3 rider encountered a problem of some description on his laps. The Briton won't be too disheartened by his fourth row start as his starts always propel him up the order. Compatriot Cal Crutchlow will start a couple of slots ahead in 8th, whilst Scott Redding will launch from 14th. The Marc VDS rider was massively handicapped by the fact that he was the only rider in that QP1 session not able to run the soft tyre.

Alongside Redding is Eugene Laverty who was, for the first time this season, top open class qualifier after he clocked a 1:49.035 for 15th. He'll also have team-mate Nicky Hayden for company at the start, the American just a few hundredths behind in a decent 16th given that he is riding with a broken thumb.

Toni Elias rounds out the field and will start his first race for the Forward Racing team in 25th.

2015 Aragon Grand Prix – The Grid

1st Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, 1:46.635

2nd Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:46.743

3rd Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team, 1:47.178

4th Pol Espargaro, Monster Yamaha Tech 3, 1:47.334

5th Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team, 1:47.357

6th Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:47.492

7th Aleix Espargaro, Suzuki Team Ecstar, 1:47.573

8th Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda, 1:47.574

9th Danilo Petrucci, Octo Pramac Racing Ducati, 1:47.775

10th Bradley Smith, Monster Yamaha Tech 3, 1:47.830