Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Autosport
Autosport
Sport
Lewis Duncan

MotoGP Aragon GP: Bagnaia snatches pole, Marquez 13th for comeback race

Having won 10 of the last 20 grands prix, Bagnaia is the rider in form at the moment as he looks to extend his run of four-successive victories in 2022 and make further inroads into championship leader Fabio Quartararo’s advantage.

Firing in a 1m46.069s at the end to smash the existing lap record, Bagnaia celebrated his first pole since the Dutch Grand Prix back in June.

The early pace in Q2 was set by the Gresini Ducati of Enea Bastianini, who went top with a 1m46.580s.

While the order behind the Italian chopped and changed, he would sit top of the pile until Bagnaia set his pole time with just under a minute of the session remaining.

Bagnaia took pole by 0.090s from Jack Miller on the sister factory team Ducati, as Bastianini completed the front row.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro had to come through Q1 and had just one fresh soft tyre to use in Q2 to try and salvage a so far difficult weekend. Making several mistakes under braking across his various laps, a final effort of 1m46.590s put him to the head of the second row in fourth.

Johann Zarco followed Espargaro through Q1 and put his Pramac Ducati into fifth ahead of a struggling Quartararo.

The Yamaha rider almost crashed going through the Turn 2 right-hander in the latter stages of Q2 having slumped to the outer reaches of the top 10. A final lap of 1m46.802s was only good enough to put the reigning world champion sixth on the grid surrounded by a rapid armada of Ducatis.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Marco Bezzecchi was seventh on his VR46 Ducati ahead of Pramac’s Jorge Martin, while Alex Rins flew the flag for Suzuki in ninth after team-mate Joan Mir was forced to withdraw from the remainder of the Aragon GP due to injury.

The factory KTM team duo of Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira were 10th and 11th, with LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami 12th.

Marc Marquez will line up 13th for his first MotoGP race since the Italian Grand Prix back in May. The factory Honda rider was in the battle for the top two positions throughout Q1, but was shuffled down to third when the yellow flags were flown for a crash for team-mate Pol Espargaro.

This ultimately denied Marquez the opportunity to try and improve on his 1m46.909s, meaning he missed a place in Q2 by just 0.066s.

Luca Marini also failed to make it out of Q1 on the sister VR46 Ducati in 14th ahead of Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, who was left in 16th after registering his first crash of the season at Turn 2 on his final flying lap.

Alex Marquez will start 17th on his LCR Honda ahead of Pol Espargaro and MotoGP returnee Cal Crutchlow on the RNF Yamaha.

He outpaced factory Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli by just over a tenth in 20th, with Tech3 duo Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez, and Darryn Binder on the sister RNF bike completing the depleted 23-rider grid.

The 23-lap MotoGP Aragon GP will get underway at 1pm BST on Sunday.

MotoGP Aragon GP Q2 Results:

Cla Rider Bike Time Gap
1 Italy Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 1'46.069  
2 Australia Jack Miller Ducati 1'46.159 0.090
3 Italy Enea Bastianini Ducati 1'46.313 0.244
4 Spain Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1'46.590 0.521
5 France Johann Zarco Ducati 1'46.646 0.577
6 France Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 1'46.802 0.733
7 Italy Marco Bezzecchi Ducati 1'46.852 0.783
8 Spain Jorge Martin Ducati 1'46.911 0.842
9 Spain Alex Rins Suzuki 1'46.912 0.843
10 South Africa Brad Binder KTM 1'46.924 0.855
11 Portugal Miguel Oliveira KTM 1'47.183 1.114
12 Japan Takaaki Nakagami Honda 1'47.274 1.205

Q1 results:

Cla Rider Bike Time Gap
1 Spain Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1'46.569  
2 France Johann Zarco Ducati 1'46.843 0.274
3 Spain Marc Marquez Honda 1'46.909 0.340
4 Italy Luca Marini Ducati 1'47.056 0.487
5 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio Ducati 1'47.119 0.550
6 Spain Maverick Viñales Aprilia 1'47.337 0.768
7 Spain Alex Marquez Honda 1'47.489 0.920
8 Spain Pol Espargaro Honda 1'47.511 0.942
9 United Kingdom Cal Crutchlow Yamaha 1'47.541 0.972
10 Italy Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 1'47.651 1.082
11 Spain Raúl Fernández KTM 1'47.671 1.102
12 Australia Remy Gardner KTM 1'47.847 1.278
13 South Africa Darryn Binder Yamaha 1'49.309 2.740
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.