Bagnaia takes dominant Aragon MotoGP pole as Quartararo struggles
Setting the best lap of the weekend on just his first flying lap, Enea Bastianini put himself on provisional pole as others around him struggled to match the Italian.
Favourite for Sunday’s Grand Prix, Bagnaia went second with his second lap while team-mate Jack miller slotted into P3 at the end of the opening run.
Not able to find the same type of pace as his main title rival, Fabio Quartararo could only manage seventh before the start of his final run.
Struggling to stop his Aprilia in straight-line braking, Espargaro began his final run by running wide at turn one which ruined his first attempt at securing a crucial front row start.
Espargaro’s next lap saw him go second behind Bastianini, however, it was Bagnaia who was showing pace good enough to spoil Bastianini’s day.
And that’s exactly what happened as the factory Ducati rider went half a second quicker before Miller reduced that margin to just over a tenth.
Espargaro, who was now down to fourth and over half a second behind Bagnaia, remained in fourth, while Quartararo was on the absolute limit as he attempted to salvage a good position.
His first lap didn’t see an improvement but his second lap did as he moved up to sixth place - seven tenths away from Bagnaia.
Espargaro through to Aragon MotoGP Q2 as Vinales crashes
Q1 consisted of a star-studded line-up that included Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Vinales and Marc Marquez, with the latter setting the best lap following the opening run.
Marquez, who was looking for a tow from Espargaro to begin Q1, ultimately set a time of 1:46.909s on his own.
With Miller being the only other rider able to set a sub 1m 47s lap time heading into Q1, Marquez’s time was an impressive one as Espargaro slotted into second place - +0.113s down on the Honda rider.
At the start of the second and final run, Maverick Vinales suffered a crash at turn two. A disastrous Saturday for one of the riders that was expected to contend for victory.
While Vinales was busy picking up his RS-GP22 from the gravel, Zarco went to the top of the leaderboard with the fastest lap of the weekend thus far.
Espargaro then saved Aprilia’s blushes as he secured top spot by nearly three tenths from Zarco. Marquez was the first rider to miss out and will start his first race back in 13th.
