MotoGP: Quartararo crashes but claims tenth pole

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo is a MotoGP polesitter for the 10th time with the Petronas Yamaha SRT rider recovering from a crash in free practice to post a scorching hot lap.

Quartararo showed phenomenal speed to fire in Q2 and set a 1:47.076, pipping second-fastest Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) by just 0.046 seconds. 

From medical centre to pole – Quartararo hot streak 

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) was back in parc ferme on Saturday afternoon to claim a place on the front row for the first time since the 2019 Americas GP.

In Q1 a titanic struggle raged between the Ducatis and South Africa’s own Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing). Danilo Petrucci (Ducati Team) topped the 15-minute fight with the best lap of the weekend at that time, a 1:47.605, while Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) grabbed the second spot on his last flying lap to demote Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) to P3 and out of Q2. 

A furious Dovizioso shot straight out the back of the garage but there is work to do for last year’s Aragon GP runner-up on Sunday as he will start from P13 on the grid.

Franco Morbidelli was the first to set a lap time in Q2 but that was immediately beaten by Miller, a 1:47.657 was set by the Australian and he was top of the pile in the early stages. 

Quartararo slotted into P2 early in the session before Morbidelli snatched P2 back – and almost P1. 0.002 separated Morbidelli and Miller but there were plenty of red sectors lighting up the time screens. 

Quartararo was one of those and El Diablo shot to P1 and following the Yamaha on track, Miller improved but stayed P2 – a tenth splitting the pair.

Morbidelli then made it a Petronas 1-2 to beat Miller’s time, less than a tenth away from his teammate, with Viñales slotting into P4 after the first set of flying laps. Crutchlow was occupying P5 with Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) sitting on the outside of the provisional front row. But that was all going to change as the riders slotted in fresh rubber, ready for their second runs.

MotoGP: Aragon Grand Prix qualifying results

ARAGON MOTOGP, MOTORLAND – FULL QUALIFYING RESULTS
POS	RIDER	NAT	TEAM	TIME/DIFF	LAP	MAX
1	Fabio Quartararo	FRA	Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1)	1’47.076s	7/7	340k
2	Maverick Viñales	SPA	Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1)	+0.046s	7/8	340k
3	Cal Crutchlow	GBR	LCR Honda (RC213V)	+0.229s	6/7	348k
4	Franco Morbidelli	ITA	Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1)	+0.241s	7/8	337k
5	Jack Miller	AUS	Pramac Ducati (GP20)	+0.337s	3/7	347k
6	Joan Mir	SPA	Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)	+0.603s	6/8	342k
7	Takaaki Nakagami	JPN	LCR Honda (RC213V)	+0.683s	8/8	338k
8	Danilo Petrucci	ITA	Ducati Team (GP20)	+0.848s	6/8	344k
9	Aleix Espargaro	SPA	Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)	+0.912s	3/8	340k
10	Alex Rins	SPA	Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)	+0.959s	8/8	340k
11	Alex Marquez	SPA	Repsol Honda (RC213V)*	+1.113s	8/8	343k
12	Pol Espargaro	SPA	Red Bull KTM (RC16)	+1.126s	3/7	346k
	Qualifying 1:
13	Andrea Dovizioso	ITA	Ducati Team (GP20)	1’47.752s	7/8	345k
14	Brad Binder	RSA	Red Bull KTM (RC16)*	1’47.853s	6/7	341k
15	Iker Lecuona	SPA	Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16)*	1’48.005s	7/7	340k
16	Johann Zarco	FRA	Reale Avintia (GP19)	1’48.068s	8/8	343k
17	Francesco Bagnaia	ITA	Pramac Ducati (GP20)	1’48.386s	8/8	345k
18	Miguel Oliveira	POR	Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16)	1’48.431s	6/6	340k
19	Bradley Smith	GBR	Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)	1’48.556s	8/8	339k
20	Tito Rabat	SPA	Reale Avintia (GP19)	1’48.558s	7/8	343k
21	Stefan Bradl	GER	Repsol Honda (RC213V)	1’49.166s	8/8	342k

MOTOGP

* Rookie.
Official Aragon MotoGP records:
Best lap:
Marc Marquez SPA Honda1m 46.635s (2015)
Fastest race lap:
Jorge Lorenzo SPA Yamaha1m 48.120s (201)