MotoGP: Marquez crash hands Viñales Aragon pole position, Rossi third

A crash for Marc Marquez in the closing stages of today’s MotoGP qualifying at Motorland Aragon has handed pole position to title rival Maverick Viñales, with the Movistar Yamaha striking while Marquez could only watch on from the sidelines, upping the ante to finish the fifteen-minute session 0.1 ahead of Jorge Lorenzo.

“The conditions were a little bit more difficult compared to this morning, to make a good lap, but anyway the team did a great job so I‘m really happy. Every time we‘re doing better qualifications and we‘re more consistent on the bike. I hope we can keep these good feelings, especially before the race tomorrow. We have been improving a lot since the Misano test.

“The dry bike has good potential and rides well all the time, but we have to improve in the rain, so we‘re keeping that in mind, in order to be consistent. Honestly, it‘s incredible what Valentino did today, I have no words. He always delivers great results and it‘s positive that Valentino is also fast, because we can see things on the bike and compare the data for tomorrow.”

Lorenzo took a strong second place on the Ducati, matching his best qualifying performance so far on the Italian bike, while the front row was rounded out by an incredible result for Valentino Rossi only three weeks after breaking his leg.

Cal Crutchlow was best of the Brits and best of the Hondas in fourth ahead of Marquez and yesterday’s fastest man Dani Pedrosa, while the third row will see joint championship Andrea Dovizioso line up alongside Aleix Espargaró and Alvaro Bautista.

However, it was a disastrous day for the other British riders, with a series of issues meaning the trio of Scott Redding, Bradley Smith and Sam Lowes will start tomorrow’s race alongside each other on the last row of the grid.