Marc Marquez Crashes, Still Wins Aragon Pole

Larry Lawrence | September 26, 2015

Photography by Gold & Goose

In a dramatic MotoGP qualifying session Saturday at the 3.155-mile Motorland Aragon it was Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez turning in an Aragon qualifying record with a time of 1:46.635. Towards the end of the session Marquez crashed while trying to better his time, and while he went to parc ferme a little dusty, he looked largely unhurt from the fall. It was Marquez’ seventh pole of the season, the 29th MotoGP pole of his career.

Starting alongside Marquez will be MoviStar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo who turned a lap of 1:46.743. Ducati’s Andrea Iannone turned in a brave performance, ignoring the pain of a separated shoulder to qualify third with a time of 1:47.178.

Marquez lowsided in turn two as he was trying to improve the time very late in the session. He got up and took a few hops in frustration. From the start of the session he was looking to make a statement early and he did. In the first segment of Q2 the Repsol Honda rider clocked a blistering 1:46.635 to beat his own qualifying record by a half-second and the benchmark for other riders to shoot for.

With a minute to go Pol Espargaro pushed the satellite Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha to the front row with a time of 1:47.334 but it didn’t hold. At the last second Iannone put the Ducati on the outside of the first row in spite of running in pain from a dislocated left shoulder. It was Iannone’s first front row start since he won the pole at his home race of Mugello.

Rounding out the second row will be Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and current series leader Valentino Rossi on his MoviStar Yamaha.

American Nicky Hayden qualified 16th this while riding with a broken thumb from a training accident. It was the best qualifying result for Hayden since Le Mans where he was 14th on the grid on the Aspar Honda.

Marquez talked about his qualifying session.

“In the first run I feel really good,” he said. “OK, I didn’t push 100 percent, but I felt I was able to improve the lap time, but already we were really fast, so it was a great surprise. With the second tire I did a few mistakes and then with the last one I say, ‘OK, now I will push my maximum.’ And sometimes you know it happens on the qualifying tire, you are pushing to the limit and in the second corner, the right corner, maybe the tire was not at the correct temperature and I lose the front. But it’s OK. I’m happy for the pole and sorry for the team because they have to repair the bike.”

The Aragon MotoGP race starts at 8:00 am Eastern and will be shown live on Fox Sports 1 with coverage beginning at 7:30 am.

MotoGP qualifying from Motorland Aragon, in Alcañiz, Spain – Sept. 26, 2015
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 338.1 1’46.635 
2 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 335.8 1’46.743 0.108 / 0.108
3 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ducati Team Ducati 343.8 1’47.178 0.543 / 0.435
4 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 332.7 1’47.334 0.699 / 0.156
5 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 340.4 1’47.357 0.722 / 0.023
6 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 332.5 1’47.492 0.857 / 0.135
7 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 327.8 1’47.573 0.938 / 0.081
8 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 336.4 1’47.574 0.939 / 0.001
9 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 336.6 1’47.775 1.140 / 0.201
10 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 337.2 1’47.830 1.195 / 0.055
11 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 337.2 1’48.556 1.921 / 0.726
12 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 329.3 1’48.648 2.013 / 0.092
13 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 340.3 1’48.294 0.441 / 0.066
14 45 Scott REDDING GBR EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 328.5 1’48.674 0.821 / 0.380
15 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 326.6 1’49.035 1.182 / 0.361
16 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 324.5 1’49.102 1.249 / 0.067
17 6 Stefan BRADL GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 324.9 1’49.109 1.256 / 0.007
18 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 334.0 1’49.253 1.400 / 0.144
19 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 335.6 1’49.426 1.573 / 0.173
20 43 Jack MILLER AUS LCR Honda Honda 328.3 1’49.436 1.583 / 0.010
21 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 327.4 1’49.437 1.584 / 0.001
22 76 Loris BAZ FRA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 320.7 1’49.496 1.643 / 0.059
23 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE AB Motoracing Honda 324.0 1’49.761 1.908 / 0.265
24 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM E-Motion IodaRacing Team ART 322.7 1’50.134 2.281 / 0.373
25 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 326.5 1’50.755 2.902 


MotoGP Photos

MotoGP News

Larry Lawrence | Archives Editor

In addition to writing our Archives section on a weekly basis, Lawrence is another who is capable of covering any event we throw his way.