Dominant Marquez Takes Easy Pole At Aragon

Marc Marquez - Photo Credit: MotoGP.com

Marc Marquez was simply untouchable in qualifying for the Grand Prix of Aragon as he took an unchallenged pole position for tomorrow's race. The Spaniard set the pace in this morning's extended practice session and only took only five minutes of qualifying to go even quicker, setting a 1:53.761 on his second flying lap.

It was a sign of his dominance that Marquez needn't have bothered going out again, as no other riders managed to get near that time, but the championship hopeful still had enough in reserve to go half a second quicker. His lap time of 1:53.296 took almost two seconds off Andrea Iannone's previous circuit record and left the other 38 riders scrapping for second.

Title rival Stefan Bradl led the chasing pack early on with a 1:54.257 as he continued his desperate attempt to keep Marquez in sight, but Aleix Espargaro moved in front of him by three hundredths of a second midway through the session.

The front row remained unchanged until the final two minutes when Julian Simon grabbed second the Mapfre Aspar Suter. The former 125cc World Champion has endured a torrid season including a leg-breaking accident at Catalunya but will start from the front row for just the second time this year, a major confidence boost for the Spaniard.

The session did come to a painful end for Simon though after losing control shortly after his flying lap. Despite an awkward landing, he limped back into parc ferme and visited the medical centre for a precautionary check-up.

Scott Redding's late-summer improvement continued with another qualifying performance for the Marc VDS team. The Briton was third fastest in the morning and repeated that display in the afternoon to join Marquez and Simon on the front row.

Redding's late effort pushed Espargaro off the front row and Alex de Angelis demoted him to fifth moments later. Stefan Bradl had now fallen to sixth but dug deep on his final lap to take fourth, albeit 0.779s away from pole.

Jules Cluzel will head up the third row ahead of the younger Espargaro brother, Pol, in eighth and Mika Kallio ninth while Andrea Iannone will certainly be worth watching from tenth.

Bradley Smith will also be looking to carve his way through the field after a difficult day. The Tech 3 youngster led the morning practice session until a crash and never seemed to recover for the rest of the day. Smith struggled with a visibly twitchy Mistral 610 and could only manage 15^th.

Qualifying Result: