Marc Márquez is the great dominator of the MotoGP GP of Aragon. The eight-time world champion took pole number 94 of his career, the 66th of his life in the premier class. The 93 is at another level on this circuit and it demonstrated it again this Saturday by dominating FP2 and taking pole position with eight tenths ahead of Pedro Acosta, second, and Pecco Bagnaia, third. He is the rider in the best form of the weekend and the one with the most pace.
Q1 began with Jorge Martín crashing at the fifth corner right at the start. The Madrilenian ran to the pits to retrieve the second bike so he could get back on track as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Marc Márquez began to take the lead ahead of Pedro Acosta and Álex Márquez (1:47.966). It was just a small warning of what was to come, because on his next lap he managed to reduce his previous time by half a second to go down to 1:47.478, six tenths faster than Mazarrón who had arrived with good feelings in Q2.
The Cervera rider faced qualifying as the big favourite for pole after dominating both Friday practice sessions and Saturday’s FP2. In the latter, it was a little more difficult for the Spaniard to get a feel for the situation. Track conditions were very different to those on Friday, as they were not completely dry after the heavy rain that hit the Motorland track yesterday morning. But he arrived in time to set, once again, the fastest time.
Márquez put in a masterful final lap to beat Jorge Martín’s time. He was already fast in the previous corner, but Nakagami hindered him just enough so that he couldn’t take the lead. However, on the following lap he went off alone and showed that he was still the fastest. The Lleida rider improved Martinator’s time by more than half a second, being the only rider to go under the 1’50 mark in FP2. He dominated all the free practice sessions of the weekend with a firm hand and only missed out on pole position.
For his part, Pecco Bagnaia, in his first run, came in third, more than a second behind Marc Márquez, who was first. The man from Lleida has become the wheel to follow after dominating all the sessions. In his second outing on the track, he lowered his previous time by seven tenths, which allowed him to set a time of 1:46.766, eight tenths faster than Pedro Acosta, who was second, and Pecco, who was third. Jorge Martín will start fourth and Álex Márquez.
Bastianini is not retained
Q1 was very complicated with great riders like Acosta, Binder, Miller, Bastianini and the two VR46 bikes. The Shark Mazarrón went out from the beginning and placed himself in the first two positions. Miller took the first position from him and left him on the wire in the last minutes. Enea, one of his great rivals to access Q1, was not comfortable. In fact, Pedro decided to follow his steering wheel and this ended up hurting him more than helping him because he was moving slowly.
The GasGas rider decided to drop out of the group on his last lap and it went well. Many were improving: Binder, Di Giannantonio, Bezzecchi. The threat of being excluded was real, but the Spaniard had an ace up his sleeve and pulled it out on his last lap, as the greats do, to beat the Australian’s time by six tenths with a 1’48”. This time secured his place in Q2, even if Binder then came to beat him by a thousandth. The two KTMs qualify for the battle for pole.
The surprise was pulled off by Enea Bastianini, who failed to make it from Q1 to Q2. The Beast, with the Ducati Desmosedici GP24, did not find the feeling and finished fourth in Q1, so he will start fourteenth on the grid. The GP23 of Valentino Rossi’s team did not succeed either. Bezzecchi touched him, but in the end he could not beat Acosta’s time and finished third – he will start thirteenth. Thus, the two KTMs entered Q2.
