Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez destroyed the Aragon MotoGP lap record by half a second to take pole position at the Spanish track but he was chased hard by title contender Jorge Lorenzo whose pressure prompted the Honda man to take to the track for a third run and a mistake a turn two saw Marquez lose the front and crash with only a minute left on the clock.
Marquez and Lorenzo put in astounding laps to dominate proceedings. Marquez’ quickest of a 1’46.625, set using medium Bridgestones front and rear, marmalised his own record of 1’47.187 but Lorenzo was not to be outdone, putting in a 1’46.743 on his fifth lap while Andrea Iannone, riding with an injured shoulder, charged into third with his last lap and also went under the lap record with a 1’47.178.
If his pole time wasn’t fast enough, Marquez was also on a quicker-still lap until he had a moment through the downhill left-hander, lost the rear and that meant he crossed the line with a 1’46.675 while Lorenzo’s last lap was a 1'46.759 so those two will be contesting the race win tomorrow unless some rain appears.
Pol Espargaro, who has been mostly invisible this weekend, bagged fourth place with his quickest lap of the weekend so far - a 1’47.334 - and it was enough to push Dani Pedrosa into the middle of the second row while Valentino Rossi scraped into sixth by the skin of his teeth with a 1'47.492 after touring for a majority of his second run.
Aleix Espargaro, who had struggled until free practice three, slid into seventh place with a 1'47.573m just in front of Cal Crutchlow and Danilo Petrucci who came through qualfying one with a 1’47.853 and found another tenth with the soft-tyred Pramac Ducati.
Bradley Smith struggled a little in qualifying two and could only muster tenth place after a fast start to the weekend and he has Yonny Hernandez and Maverick Vinales for company. Andrea Dovizioso had a shocking qualifying two as he used two soft tyres to get out of the first session. He ended down in 13th place, one ahead of Scott Redding.
Eugene Laverty set his quickest lap of the weekend, posting a 1'49.035 for 15th place. The Monegasque was top Open bike with team-mate Nicky Hayden right behind him.
