Larry Lawrence | September 24, 2016
Saturday at Motorland Aragon at times looked more like a demolition derby than a MotoGP event. The question on the day was who crashed, but who didn’t. Among the fallers was MotoGP World Championship leader Marc Marquez, yet the factory Honda rider was able to bounce back strong and dominate qualifying to win the pole for Sunday’s Aragon Grand Prix.
It marked the sixth pole of the season for Marquez, the 36th of his career. He will be joined on the front row by Suzuki’s Maverick Viñales and defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo on his Yamaha.
The FP4 session was an absolute crashfest, with a number of riders hitting the ground, including Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. It appeared oil on the track was involved with Marquez, Pol Esparagaro and Hayden all piling up in turn 14. The most serious accident was a freak occurrence where Pol Espargaro lost the front end on his Tech 3 Yamaha and slammed into Danilo Petrucci, who was exiting the pits aboard his Pramac Ducati. The riders all escaped their falls without serious injury.
Tech 3 sub Alex Lowes sat out qualifying after a hard crash on Saturday morning. The Yamaha World Superbike regular will be evaluated Sunday morning before deciding whether to try to race or not.
Marquez showed he was no worse for wear as he charged hard in the final Q2 qualifying session and bolted to the top of timing charts early in the session, with a 1:47.117 on his Repsol Honda. Viñales and Lorenzo both turned in their front-row runs late in the qualifying session.
To add to the rash of crashes, Crutchlow and Pedrosa were fallers in Q2, both walking away unscathed.
Marquez was all smiles after scoring the pole, admitting his strong performance wasn’t really a surprise.
“At this circuit normally my speed is really good,” Marquez explained. “I always feel good. Yesterday we struggled a lot with the setup, but today we find a good setup and I improved a lot, even like this the tires drop a lot and we must manage this. Today also one positive thing for me is that was able to use the hard front (tire). Tomorrow looks like it will be more cloudy and maybe some possibility of rain, so maybe the hard will be difficult to use. But anyway with the others tires I feel OK. So I’m happy with the base of this weekend.”
American Nicky Hayden qualified 19th aboard the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda in his first MotoGP race of 2016.
The GP at Aragon takes the green flag at 8:00 am Eastern on Sunday. The race can be watched on beIN Sports or by subscription at MotoGP.com.
GRAN PREMIO MOVISTAR DE ARAGÓN
MotoGP Qualifying Classification 2016
Alcañiz, Spain, Saturday, September 24, 2016
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1’47.117
2 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 1’47.748
3 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1’47.778
4 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1’47.819
5 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda HONDA 1’47.843
6 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1’47.951
7 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1’48.017
8 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 1’48.230
9 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI 1’48.236
10 45 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI 1’48.242
11 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1’48.448
12 6 Stefan BRADL GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 1’49.083
13 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing DUCATI 1’48.699
14 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 1’48.904
15 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Pull & Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 1’48.954
16 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Pull & Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 1’49.052
17 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1’49.139
18 53 Tito RABAT SPA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 1’49.319
19 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 1’49.490
20 76 Loris BAZ FRA Avintia Racing DUCATI 1’49.841
21 22 Alex LOWES GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1’50.988