Marc Marquez set the fastest ever two-wheeled lap of Motorland Aragon to claim pole position ahead of Jorge Lorenzo despite crashing late in qualifying. The world champion finally showed his hand after keeping quiet in free practice to beat his Spanish rival by a tenth of a second while Valentino Rossi’s qualifying gremlins returned.
Lorenzo and Marquez had been the class of the field throughout free practice and the pair renewed their rivalry in Q2, Lorenzo breaking the lap record at the very first attempt. The Movistar Yamaha rider set a 1:47.080 as an opening salvo but Marquez crossed the line moments later to put his compatriot in his place, clocking a 1:46.635.
To many, it appeared as though Marquez had achieved the perfect lap and on his subsequent two runs, Marc tried in vain to beat his own benchmark time. On his second attempt, he came up agonisingly short with a 1:46.675 while the third run only lasted as far as the second corner when the front end of his Repsol Honda cried enough through the fast right-hander.
Although Lorenzo joined him in the 1:46s late on, Marc held onto pole, while Andrea Iannone produced one of the day’s stand-out performances to qualify third, dislocated shoulder and all. The Italian’s impressive display was matched by that of Pol Espargaro who finished a sensational fourth, beating the second factory Honda of Dani Pedrosa.
Faced with a third row start, Valentino Rossi dug deep to set a 1:47.492, dragging him back up to sixth, with Aleix Espargaro relegated to seventh ahead of Cal Crutchlow and Q1 pacesetter Danilo Petrucci. Bradley Smith failed to deliver on his practice promise, leaving him tenth on the grid, but his disappointment will be nothing compared to Andrea Dovizioso who was a surprise Q1 casualty.
2015 GRAN PREMIO MOVISTAR DE ARAGON: QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION
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