Two laps nobody had ridden here before
Marc Marquez went out first this morning and put a 1:45.136 on the board. That was already an all-time lap record at MotorLand, and it left the rest of Q2 close to half a second adrift. On most weekends that settles it.
Marco Bezzecchi answered with a 1:44.984, the first lap in the 1:44s the premier class has ever produced at this circuit. Then he took another 0.022s out of it, a 1:44.962, and pole for the Michelin Grand Prix of Aragon belonged to the Aprilia rider by 0.089 seconds.
Marquez had one run left. Through the opening sector he was 0.141s down, then he pulled it back to 0.013s with two corners to go. The front Michelin let go at Turn 14. He saved the bike and lost the lap.
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Bezzecchi is riding hurt and riding faster
The Italian arrived at Aragon carrying an injury and still ended Friday quickest, ten thousandths clear of Alex Marquez in Practice. He spent Friday evening telling anyone who asked that the reigning World Champion was hiding something. He was right about the margin and wrong about who would use it.
Alex Marquez completes the front row, so both brothers line up behind a rider who has just beaten Marc Marquez to P1 at a track the Ducati man has owned for years.
Aprilia took two of the next three slots. Raul Fernandez, the Silverstone winner, starts fourth. Championship leader Jorge Martin is fifth after a scrappy session in which a problem with his RS-GP left him last of the eleven riders who had set a time with six minutes on the clock. Pedro Acosta holds sixth despite going down at Turn 8 on a personal best.
Zarco keeps his comeback rolling
Row three reads Fabio Di Giannantonio, Francesco Bagnaia and Johann Zarco. The Frenchman, back on the bike this weekend, was the only Honda rider to reach Q2 and he stayed there rather than filling out the numbers.
Bagnaia needed Q1 and took it, going quickest on his second run before running wide at the penultimate corner. Diogo Moreira went through with him, which reads oddly given the rookie crashed at Turn 2 with two minutes left and never set another lap. Joan Mir found red splits in the first two sectors, gave the time back in the second half of the lap, and starts 15th. Fermin Aldeguer and Franco Morbidelli fill row four alongside Moreira, which leaves the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix looking a good deal less predictable than it did on Thursday.
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