Marquez shrugs off crash to claim pole

Spain’s Marc Marquez has taken pole position for the Aragon Grand Prix after overcoming a crash in practice on Saturday.

Marc Marquez will start as favourite on Sunday after qualifying first for the Aragon Grand Prix in some style.

“If you go too fast in the first lap you destroy the tyres for the second one, so I had to go slowly to go much faster in the second lap”.

American Hayden, who won the 2006 title with the works Honda team, finished third at the inaugural Motorland Aragon race on a Ducati in 2010. If it gets colder, we would have to reassess the front tyre choice.

“If I need to finish fourth, like at Misano, I will do it”. MotorLand marks the first opportunity for Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Brad Binder to take the title as the South African is 106 points clear at the top of the table, but he had a more hard session in Saturday afternoon to post the seventh quickest time. Alex Lowes (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), replacing injured Bradley Smith for the third time in a row, had a crash in FP3 and subsequently chose to stay off track on Saturday afternoon – with a decision on whether to race left for Sunday morning.

Vinales won the fight to be second with a 1m47.748s lap set with one minute left on the clock, while Lorenzo then improved after the chequered flag to snatch the final spot on the front row of the grid.

Just after Rossi returned to the track, almost 20 minutes into the session, Lowes’ team-mate Pol Espargaro lost the front end of his Tech3 Yamaha at Turn 2.

As the second run got underway, Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) leapt up into P2 before former teammate Cal Crutchlow lost his Honda into Turn 1 in the first high profile crash of the session.

2016 MotoGP Championship contender Valentino Rossi was second fastest. Dani Pedrosa, victor in San Marino two weeks ago, also came off his bike to hinder his chances of another victory as Marquez’s teammate will start from seventh.

Scott Redding (Pramac), Pol Espargaro (Yamaha Tech 3) and Stafen Bradl (Aprilia) completed the top ten.

Racing gets underway at 14:00 local time at MotorLand Aragon, as Marquez prepares to paint the town red – and increase that 43 point lead as the flyways beckon on the road to Valencia.