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MotoGP: Marc Marquez Sets New Pole Record at Aragon

The GP grid is set with Marquez, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Iannone on the front row.

September 28, 2014

Marc Marquez smashed the MotorLand Aragon Circuit Best Lap record by over half a second for his eleventh pole position of 2014, and helped to secure a Repsol Honda lockout of the front two grid slots at the Aragon Grand Prix. Marquez lapped the circuit at a blazing 1’47.187s for his 11th pole position of 2014 and his 20th MotoGP pole in total for Sunday’s Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon.

Marquez rides this one out in Q2 to set a new pole record at Aragon.

Marquez led the way by a 0.362s margin having broken the pole record earlier in the session, only for Pedrosa to move into provisional pole position with a 1’47.549s, with Marquez responding on his final lap. Marquez was 0.617s quicker than his own pole record from 2013.

Andrea Iannone on the new GP14.2 Ducati takes full advantage of the extra grip provided by the soft compound rear slick to set the third-quickest qualifying lap time.

The front row was completed by the consistently impressive Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) who has a new GP14.2 bike this weekend and qualified just under half a second behind Marquez.

Number 4 qualifier Pol Espargaro will start behind Marquez in row 2. Back in 2010, Espargaro was the first race winner at Aragon in in the 125 class.

Row two will comprise rookie Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), the Italian having earlier made it through from Q1.

After finishing both of Saturday’s free practice sessions in ninth place, Cal Crutchlow was able to advance directly into Q2, and on his second run he set a time of 1’47.897 to earn him fifth place and a row two start on the grid.

Jorge Lorenzo, clearly unhappy with his qualifying performance, said, "I’m very disappointed because today we got two wrong tires for the rear. They were not good. One was defective in the morning and the second tire in qualifying was also not good. I expected to improve four or five tenths but I couldn’t, improving by just one tenth."

Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) qualified at the head of the third row in seventh place, 1.059s behind the rampant Marquez. Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) and crasher Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) complete the third row.

Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) was unhappy at the end of the session as he was held up by another rider and qualified tenth.

Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) crashed with just three minutes to go, leaving him 11th on the grid and Dovizioso (Ducati Team) also fell minutes later. Despite advancing through Q1 on his new Ducati, Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) was unable to set a lap time due to front end chatter problems – thus being classified 12th.

Andrea Dovisioso led Friday's free practice sessions on Ducati's new GP14.2 race bike but suffered this Q2 crash. "I was sure I could do a good qualifying session but I lost the front at turn 8 in a rather strange crash. I don’t think I did anything wrong: it was my mistake but I don’t think I exaggerated that much, maybe we’re a bit too close to the limit at the front. We’ve got to work to improve this tomorrow because otherwise in the race I won’t be able to push that hard. Today however we did a good job and we’ve got good race pace.”

Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar) qualified in 18th place in Q1 as he returns to Grand Prix action this weekend, whilst Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) had big crash at the end of Q1 and ended up 17th.

2014/09/27 - mgp - Round14 - Aragon - MotoGP - Marc Marquez - Repsol Honda - RC213V - Action

Andrea Iannone on the new GP14.2 Ducati takes full advantage of the extra grip provided by the soft compound rear slick to set the third-quickest qualifying lap time.

Number 4 qualifier Pol Espargaro will start behind Marquez in row 2. Back in 2010, Espargaro was the first race winner at Aragon in in the 125 class.

Marquez rides this one out in Q2 to set a new pole record at Aragon.