Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez has bagged his third MotoGP pole position in a row at Motorland Aragon this afternoon as the top six riders all went underneath Casey Stoner's outright lap record of 1'48.451 set in 2011.
The rookie edged out Jorge Lorenzo by 0.010s with a 1'47.804 set on his last flyer as he was forced to abandon his final circuit after running off the circuit. Lorenzo was all smiles when he returned to parc ferme after a relative disaster yesterday when he was a mile behind the Hondas.
The factory Yamaha man beat Stoner's record with his very first lap this afternoon, setting a benchmark of 1'48.241 with LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl in close proximity before he was deposed for second place by Valentino Rossi.
Bradl was not to outdone, though, and beat Lorenzo with his second lap of 1'48.159 while Rossi then took second. The works Hondas weren't in the hunt until Dani Pedrosa slammed into top spot with a 1'47.957 and team-mate Marquez followed him into second place with a 1'48.131.
After the tyre changes, Lorenzo's lap of 1'47.814 looked like it was enough until Marquez then went faster to bag top spot and pushed Pedrosa into third place for the last spot on row two and Rossi down into fourth place. He was the last man under the 1'48s barrier with a 1'47.962.
Bradl ended in fifth place while Alvaro Bautista assumed his customary sixth place. Britain's Cal Crutchlow will be disapppointed with his position down in seventh and only two tenths ahead of team-mate Bradley Smith.
Andrea Dovizioso is the leading Ducati in ninth while Aleix Espargaro used a tow from Pedrosa to put himself ahead of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Iannone. Yonny Hernandez put the Ignite Ducati in 13th on his debut while Hiro Aoyama and Danilo Petrucci completed the top three CRT riders. Michael Laverty has so far found more than 1.5s with the PBM ART in the last couple of sessions and ended in 20th but is only a tenth behind Hector Barbera.
