Alcañiz — Francesco Bagnaia established a new Motorland lap record during qualifying for the Aragon Grand Prix on Saturday, securing his fifth pole position of the MotoGP season.
The Italian, who has won the last four races to surge up the rider standings, clinched pole position with a lap of 1min 46.069sec, leading a Ducati sweep of the front row.
Jack Miller, riding the other factory bike, was second at 0.09 seconds, followed by Enea Bastianini, riding a Gresini-Ducati, in third at 0.154 seconds.
Bagnaia trails leading and defending champion Fabio Quartararo by 30 points.
The Frenchman advanced to the second row on his Yamaha, barely 0.05 seconds faster than the Italian’s Ducati VR46.
Aleix Espargaro, who rides an Aprilia and is third in the championship three points behind Bagnaia, and Johann Zarco, who rides a Pramac-Ducati, are on the second row just ahead of Quartararo.
Bagnaia smashed the course lap record of 1:46.322 that he established in qualifying the previous year, when he went on to win from the pole position.
“This is my best ever lap time,” he declared. “I’ve never had a lap time like this before. I’m so flawless in this state that I’m extremely content. Tomorrow, we must complete the task.”
Six-time world champion Marc Marquez, competing for the first time this season following his fourth surgery on his right arm, was the twelfth-fastest rider in practice and had to compete in the first qualifying session, where all riders outside of the top ten battle for the last two spots in Q2 and a chance to claim pole position. He was third fastest, just 0.066 seconds behind second, and will start from the thirteenth position.
Sprint races
Qualifying took place in front of a modest crowd on the same day that MotoGP organizers Dorna revealed that sprint races would be held on Saturdays during the 2019 season.
Riders will receive half the number of points for completing half the distance.
Saturday morning qualifying will determine starting places for both the sprint race and the main event on Sunday.
The duration of the second qualifying session on Friday will be extended to an hour.
Joan Mir, who participated in free practice on Friday and Saturday morning, has decided not to participate in qualifying and will also miss the Japanese Grand Prix on September 25.
In August, the 2020 world champion suffered a right ankle injury in a severe crash at the start of the Austrian Grand Prix. The Spaniard missed the Grand Prix of San Marino in early September.
The team reported that Mir was suffering from “a severe limitation of mobility and an increase in pain.”
In Moto3, championship leader Ivan Guevara claimed pole position on a GasGas, but this weekend marks the return of fellow Spaniard Maria Herrera, who is riding as a wild card for the MTA Angeluss team with an all-female pit crew.
Herrera, 28, competed in 53 Moto3 races between 2013 and 2017, with a best finish of 11th in Australia in 2015. This season, she has been participating in MotoE on substantially heavier electric bikes.
“We wanted to expand the number of women working in the paddock, from riders to mechanics, so we decided to form an all-female squad,” team manager Aurora Angelucci told the Spanish newspaper Marca.
Herrera, competing for a squad that has battled to maintain a position in the center of the field, qualified 15th out of the 16 riders who posted a time.
AFP