Marquez beats Pedrosa to Aragon pole

The MotoGP™ Q2 session on Saturday afternoon in Spain resulted in Marc Marquez taking pole at the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon, with Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Iannone also achieving front row slots.

A new pole position record of 1:47.187 gave Marquez his 11th pole position of 2014 – and his 20thMotoGP pole in total – ahead of Sunday’s 800th premier class Grand Prix.

The Repsol Honda pair of Marquez and Pedrosa had a clear advantage over the Yamaha machines for much of the weekend, but the Ducatis of Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) had been challenging for the front.

Q2 saw Marquez break his own lap record on just his first flying lap, putting him comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. Marquez himself thought that this time would be enough, but teammate Pedrosa produced an incredible lap time to take provisional pole.

The riders came in for their second set of tires and Marquez quickly returned to track, pushing hard to produce another record breaking lap.

“Qualifying went very well, continuing the form that we have had so far this weekend,” Marquez said. “We have focused a lot of our work on our race pace, looking less at setting a one-off lap time and more at finding a strong pace.

“It has given me good confidence but the weather looks unstable and the tire choice will be tough. The choice of tires is a little harder when it’s cold. The temperature today was perfect, hopefully it’s a dry race tomorrow as it’s better for the fans.”

Dovizioso had been on a quick lap when he crashed his Ducati GP14.2, allowing Pedrosa to take the second spot on the grid ahead of Iannone with a 1:47.549 lap time, also under the previous lap record.

“Today we had a good qualifying session,” Pedrosa said. “In other races we have had difficulties because we haven’t started from the front, but today we managed to set a good lap. I think that the practice sessions also went well for us, and tomorrow in the race we will be as competitive as possible.”

The front row was completed by the consistently impressive Iannone, who has a new GP14.2 bike this weekend and qualified just under half a second behind Marquez.

Iannone went out in Q2 and set a banker lap before returning for his second tire. The Italian then waited for Marquez to gain a tow around Aragon but his former Moto2 sparring partner was not pushing on the first laps so Iannone had to go alone.

Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) had briefly gone ahead of Iannone, but the Italian improved to a 1:47.685, securing his spot on the front row. This is Iannone’s fourth front row of the season and his first time securing successive front row starts in MotoGP™.

“What can I say? I’m happy it’s another front row and I put down a great lap time and did this time alone,” Iannone said. “I used the soft tire in Q2 and it helped a lot for the lap time and it helped with cornering. I’m happy with it but we can’t use it for the race, we’ll have to go for the medium as we don’t have the hard.

“The new bike is very similar, just more comfortable. Hopefully we can keep improving and I’ll try my best. I’m happy with the race pace; I think tomorrow we can go for a good result. It’s a good weekend and it’s important to start from the front row. I’ll try my best for the race.”

Row two will comprise rookie Espargaro, Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), the Italian having earlier made it through from Q1.

Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) qualified at the head of the third row in seventh place, 1.059s behind the rampant Marquez. Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) and crasher Dovizioso complete the third row.

Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) was unhappy at the end of the session as he was held up by another rider and qualified 10th.

Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) crashed with just three minutes to go, leaving him 11th on the grid. Despite advancing through Q1 on his new Ducati, Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) was unable to set a lap time due to front end chatter problems – thus being classified 12th.

Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar) qualified in 18th place in Q1 as he returns to Grand Prix action this weekend, while Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) had big crash at the end of Q1 and ended up 17th.

Saturday’s Moto2™ QP session at the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon saw Maverick Viñales take pole, with Johann Zarco and Mika Kallio also on the front row.

Moto3™ World Champion Viñales, a rookie in the intermediate class, got his first Moto2 pole with an impressive 1:54.073 lap. The young Spanish talent had also led FP3 earlier in the day and he will go in search of a second victory of 2104 on Sunday.

Behind Viñales the recently improved Zarco (AirAsia Caterham Moto Racing) took second place, with Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team) in third.

Lining up in fourth place on the grid will be another rookie Franco Morbidelli (Italtrans Racing Team), who qualified 0.11s off pole. World Championship leader Tito Rabat (Marc VDS Racing Team) had provisional pole but crashed on his seventh lap and could not improve after that, ending up fifth on the grid, just ahead of Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Sitag).

Moto3™ QP on Saturday afternoon saw Alex Rins secure pole, ahead of Danny Kent and Juanfran Guevara on the front row.

At his local track the form rider of the class Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) secured his fourth pole position of 2014 with a fastest time of 1:58.318 which put him 0.116s ahead of Englishman Kent (Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo).

Guevara (Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3) rounded out the front row 0.152s off Rins’ time, having also set a sensational lap time of 1:57.930 in FP3.

World Championship leader Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) should be in the hunt Sunday from the front of row two, where he is joined by Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Enea Bastianini (Junior Team Go&FUN Moto3).

–From motogp.com

MotoGP Qualifying Results (courtesy Repsol Honda)

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