If Marc Marquez has a great chance to score his first win on a Ducati, it seems to be the Aragon Grand Prix. After being the fastest in both sessions yesterday, the Gresini Racing rider found a pole position that he had been missing since Jerez and he did it by giving a resounding lesson to all the competition.
On a track still dirty and treacherous due to the rain that fell during the night, the eight-time world champion stopped the clock at 1’46″766, far from the Motorland Aragon record he had set yesterday, but fast enough to edge out the closest pursuers by a whopping eight tenths. Just think that only three riders managed to get a gap of less than a second behind him to give an idea of his performance.
A bravo also goes to Pedro Acosta, who finally managed to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel that he seemed to have entered in this second part of the season. The GasGas Tech3 rider went through Q1, so he only had one new soft tyre available, but he made it enough to climb into second place, albeit 840 thousandths behind Marc, although in this he was perhaps a little favoured by having had the chance to “taste” the track conditions.
And by just 2 thousandths the Spanish rookie outwitted the world championship leader Pecco Bagnaia, who however probably would have signed for a front row starting from how his weekend had started yesterday. It is clear that at this moment Marquez seems to be from another planet for everyone, but for him it is perhaps more important to be ahead of his rival in the race for the title Jorge Martin, who will open the second row with the fourth time.
The Prima Pramac Racing rider from Madrid made life a bit difficult for himself, because on the first flying lap of Q2 he ended up with his wheels in the air at turn 5, confirming the difficulties on the front that the Ducatis are experiencing on this track. However, he was then good at patching things up to climb back up to fourth place at 876 thousandths.
In a qualifying session in which it “only” brought five bikes to Q2, Ducati still placed them all in the first two rows, because completing the second row are the GP23 of Alex Marquez, who practically did the entire qualifying session on his brother’s hook, and the GP24 of Franco Morbidelli, who seems to have made an important step forward compared to yesterday.
The good morning of KTM, which on the Spanish ups and downs seems to be the second force, is completed by the seventh time of Brad Binder, who like Acosta had only one new tire available after going through Q1. Alongside him on the third row will be the two Aprilias of Trackhouse Racing with Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez.
Johann Zarco instead signed Honda’s best qualifying of the season: after having made it to Q2 yesterday, the French rider today also had the satisfaction of finishing behind the two official Aprilias of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales, who both failed to complete a real flying lap, making a few too many mistakes, as demonstrated by their heavy gaps.
Unfortunately, none of the Italian riders present in Q1 managed to pass the cut. In fact, the first excluded were our own guys. Marco Bezzecchi will line up his Ducati GP23 of Pertamina Enduro VR46 in 13th position, after being fooled by just 68 thousandths by Acosta’s KTM.
Enea Bastianini will instead be kicking himself even more for the time that was cancelled yesterday due to a yellow flag that would have earned him direct Q2. With the track still slippery due to the rain that fell during the night, the official Ducati rider had to abort a couple of attempts, ending up long at the “corkscrew” and therefore in the end he finds himself only 14th on the grid.
If the KTMs made their voices heard in this Q1, it was obvious that the RC16s could not all get into Q2. The one who paid the price was Jack Miller, who will complete the fifth row from the 15th place on the starting grid.
Despite his left shoulder still hurting due to the dislocation he suffered in Austria, Fabio Di Giannantonio fought with all his strength, but had to settle for 16th place on the grid, ahead of the first Yamaha, Fabio Quartararo. The innovations introduced in the private test at Misano do not seem to have given the M1s the step forward they had hoped for, and this is also confirmed by Alex Rins, who finds himself in 21st and penultimate position.
Qualifying to forget also for the two HRC riders, because Luca Marini and Joan Mir are at the back of the grid with their RC213Vs, in 20th and 22nd position. The two official riders are in fact also behind the Team LCR bike of Takaaki Nakagami, who with the 18th time precedes the GasGas Tech3 of Augusto Fernandez.
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