Tito Rabat is well placed to keep his championship defence alive after claiming pole position for tomorrow’s Aragon Grand Prix. The Spaniard saw off compatriot Alex Rins in a session where the two were a class apart, with champion-elect Johann Zarco almost half a second adrift in third after a slow start.
Provisional pole position rarely left the hands of Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS throughout qualifying with Alex Marquez making the early running with a 1:53.181. His spell at the top of the leaderboard was ended emphatically by his teammate with Rabat setting successive laps in the 1:52s bracket. The reigning champion had half a second in hand at this stage but a third Spaniard emerged to split the Marc VDS duo with Rins coming agonisingly close to snatching top spot.
Zarco had been conspicuous by his absence from the pole position battle in the early stages of qualifying and it wasn’t until the final fifteen minutes that the Frenchman lifted himself from fifteenth to eighth. Refusing to panic though, Johann continued to chip away at his personal best time and despite having a lap cancelled for exceeding track limits at the final corner, he would ultimately salvage third with a 1:52.659.
Sam Lowes didn’t enjoy the smoothest of sessions either, crashing at turn sixteen, but he would also recover to qualify fourth ahead of Takaaki Nakagami. Marquez slipped to sixth in the dying seconds and will have Jonas Folger close behind on tomorrow’s grid, the German having qualified seventh. Thomas Luthi was eighth ahead of Axel Pons while Sandro Cortese completed the top ten.
MOTO2 GRAN PREMIO MOVISTAR DE ARAGON: QUALIFYING RESULT
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