While the Hondas dominated at Aragon in practice sessions earlier, it was Movistar Yamaha man Maverick Vinales who stole pole position from the Repsol Honda squad in a closely fought qualifying session. Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo impressively made it to the front grid in second position coming from Q1, but the most impressive ride today has to be Valentino Rossi qualifying in third, despite coming back from a fresh injury!
Although Marquez looked all set to take the pole position today, he slid out of the track in the closing minutes of the session. Marquez’ misfortune meant Vinales sealed the top spot and claimed his back-to-back pole position today after the last one at Misano. Lorenzo was only a tenth-slower than Vinales, while Rossi was only 0.180s off the pace of the leader.
The best Honda man in the qualifying session today was Cal Crutchlow, who finished in fourth. Despite not being able to put in a final flyer, Marquez will start from the fifth spot tomorrow. The second row will be an all Honda row with Dani Pedrosa in sixth.
Andrea Dovizioso, who jointly leads the championship with Marquez, will be right behind the Spaniard in seventh. Alongside him will be Aleix Espargaro of Aprillia in eighth and Alvaro Bautista of Aspar Ducati in ninth. Andrea Iannone of Factory Suzuki completed the top ten.
If the track remains dry tomorrow, expect some close racing between the top riders since all are so closely matched in terms of race-pace. However, if the rain Gods decide to show up, it’s going to be anyone’s race as we've come to witness in some of the previous rounds this year.
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