Bagnaia takes Aragon pole with new lap record, leads factory Ducati 1-2

Francesco Bagnaia will start the Aragon MotoGP from pole after a stunning final lap saw him break Marc Marquez’ six-year old lap record.

The preliminary laps seemed to suggest a Ducati domination was incoming as Jorge Martin led Bagnaia and Jack Miller, however, championship leader Fabio Quartararo responded with a brilliant 1:46.727s. 

Quartararo was over five tenths up on Martin’s time through the opening three sectors, before losing three tenths in sector four - a part of the track that’s been his Achilles heel all weekend.

At the beginning of the final run, Bagnaia put in a stunning effort to go four tenths quicker than Quartararo. 

The Italian made up all four tenths in the above-mentioned final sector which has easily been Ducati’s favourite.

Quartararo tried his best to deny Bagnaia on his final lap but was unable to do so, instead Miller pipped the Frenchman to second. 

Marc Marquez was third as the checkered flag dropped, before being pushed down to the front of the second row. Marquez will start alongside Martin in fifth and Aleix Espargaro in sixth. 

Joan Mir will start the Aragon MotoGP from seventh, while Pol Espargaro, Enea Bastianini and Johann Zarco rounded out the top ten. 

Qualifying 1

A whole host of riders missed the apex for turn one during their opening lap, including Alex Rins who was the first rider out of pit lane. 

On his second flying lap, Rins became the perfect marker for both Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco as they went quicker than the Suzuki man.

Brad Binder then slotted in behind Zarco for second, while Rins improved again to go third at the conclusion of the opening run.

While plenty of riders improved on their final runs including Danilo Petrucci who momentarily took second, Zarco and Binder went even quicker to ultimately advance to Q2.