Rennie Scaysbrook | September 23, 2017
Vinales snatches it right at the end with Rossi heroically in third
Maverick Vinales took his Movistar Yamaha to his fifth pole of the season and his second in succession, after a slow start to his weekend with wheelspin problems in yesterday’s damp conditions which left him out of sorts, and everybody short of set-up time.
Today dawned misty but clear, and a very close qualifying session was run in bright sunshine, with a dazzling flurry in the last few minutes.
Top spot filled him with confidence and was a boost to the championship, where he lies only 16 points adrift of joint leaders Marquez and Dovizioso.
Riding the 2018 chassis again, he said: “The bike is feeling better and better now. We just need to improve in wet conditions.”
Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) had been on top and might have stayed there had he completed his final lap. But he slipped off, and that left the way open for four other riders to get ahead.
The first, to the amazement of all, was Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha); who said later that “it was a surprise to me as well”.
Then Jorge Lorenzo circulated less than a tenth quicker for his first front row since moving to Ducati this year; then finally Vinales edged a tenth ahead of him.
The top three were covered by less than two tenths.
Jorge Lorenzo has led races in Austria and Misano but felt that Aragon’s first front row since switching to Ducati marked an important step.
“I have started to like a lot this bike, that is very different from what I rode before,” he said.
“Each race I get something more.”
Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) also slipped ahead of Marquez to fourth, only two hundredths away from deposing Rossi. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) was sixth, for an all-Honda second row.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), equal on points with Marquez, was less than four tenths off pole, heading row three from Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati). Iannone (Suzuki), Zarco (Yamaha) and Mika Kallio (KTM) filled row four.
Kallio’s performance had been remarkable, putting him straight into Q2 and significantly ahead of Red Bull KTM regulars Pol Espargaro and Bradly Smith qualified 14th and 23rd respectively.
Lorenzo and Zarco had to come through Q1, with Lorenzo claiming it as an advantage “because it meant 20 minutes more set-up time”.
Jack Miller (VDS Honda), lining up for his 100th GP start, missed the Q1 cut by just nine thousandths of a second.
Moto2: Oliveira takes pole, then doesn’t then does!
Bafflement, drama, anger, disappointment and a full range of other emotions attended the end of Moto2 after Miguel Oliveira set Red Bull KTM’s second pole of the season, had it snatched by confused officialdom in favor of Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Kalex), then was given it back five minutes later.
The Portuguese rider’s success came at the track where last year his season was badly interrupted when he was knocked down by Franco Morbidelli (VDS Kalex), who benefitted by the confusion with a brief promotion to third and the front row, before being put back to fourth again.
Oliveira was already in parc ferme and looked stunned when he was told he had exceeded track limits and his time would be disallowed. He was back in his pit, still shaking his head when officials came and told him they had made a mistake.
In the interim, Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Kalex) had briefly celebrated his fifth successive pole, before being put back to second, a couple of hundredth behind Oliveira.
Alex Marquez (VDS Kalex) staged an impressive comeback, placed third, although still suffering from the painful hip fracture that put him out of the last round at Misano.
Simone Corsi (Speed Up) was fifth, with class rookie Jorge Navarro (Gresini Kalex) alongside, and Morbidelli’s closest title rival Tom Luthi (CarXpert Kalex) seventh, to head row three.
Moto3: Martin takes a late pole
Moto3 qualifying came to a dramatic conclusion with a multi-bike crash that prevented a final shuffle on the orders. A few corners before that, Del Conca Honda rider Jorge Martin had also fallen but managed to hang on to his seventh pole this year pole by virtue of his earlier time.
In the closing seconds, Enea Bastianini (EG Honda) slotted into second, pushing teammate Aron Canet to third for another all-Honda front row.
Nicolo Bulega and SKY VR46 wild-card team-mate Dennis Foggia led row two on their KTMs, from title leader Joan Mir (Leopard Honda); with John McPhee’s Honda leading row three.
The multiple crash was triggered when Adam Norrodin high-sided his Honda in the middle of a typically close Moto3 qualifying pack. Four other riders were involved: Mir, Martin’s team-mate Di Giannantonio, and Guevara (KTM) came down; Mugello winner Migno was sent careening off into the gravel.
Pole sitter Martin is the latest to suffer injury away from the track while training— although fortunately without lasting effects.
The Spaniard was taken to hospital, though not admitted, after a road accident following the Misano round. “A car hit me while I was riding my bicycle,” he said.
Day Two News
Valentino Rossi’s incredible return
Rossi’s trip from the operating table to the front row of the starting grid in just 23 days sets a new record for recovery time from a double leg fracture.
The same rider set a record in 2010, coming back within just over 40 days after a single break, after snapping his right tibia at Mugello. That, however, was a compound fracture (bone through the skin). This year’s break was both tibia and fibula, but less serious and more readily repaired without complication.
Rossi’s 2010 record was swiftly broken later that same year by tough Frenchman Randy de Puniet, who broke both tibia and fibula at the German GP but returned at Brno just 26 days later.
Rossi had now taken four days off that record, starting practice 22 days after the fracture, and 21 days after the surgery, which was performed in the small hours of the next morning.
De Puniet crashed again in practice at Brno, qualified 11th, and finished 10th on the LCR Honda.
Rossi challenged for pole and qualified a delighted third, but admitted it had been painful and said: “Now I have to understand if I can ride to the end of the race.
“I have to thank the doctors,” he added. But rather than improvements in medical science in the past seven years, “it depends very much on the type of fracture.”
Rossi revealed that it had only been last week that he thought he might be able to race at Aragon.
On Monday, “I did some laps on the R1 at Misano, and I understood that I can ride, but with a lot of pain.”
But with intensive physiotherapy, the injury improved day by day and was continuing to do so; while the M1 MotoGP Yamaha was more comfortable “for my size” than the R1 road bike.
“At the beginning, we made the seat higher and the footpegs lower, but from today I used the normal position – for sure it is a better way to ride the bike,” he continued.
He had taken a single painkiller, he said, “because it is difficult to put on my boot”; and experienced some pain and awkwardness while riding. “On the bike, I feel some pain, but not too much, so I can concentrate on riding.” The most difficult thing was torsion on his leg, making it difficult to get his right foot in the correct position for right-hand corners.”
He had an amusing way of describing how this injury was much less troublesome than that in 2010. “Last time I could go to the toilet by myself after five days. This time, after one day.”
As for race distance: “On Friday morning I woke up with some pain. Today, with less pain. If it is the same [improvement] tomorrow it will be easier. I will try.”