Moto2 Aragon: Record pace elevates Marquez to pole

Alex Marquez put in the fastest ever intermediate lap of the Motorland circuit to secure pole position ahead of the Moto2 Aragon Grand Prix.

The EG 0,0 Marc VDS rider put in an early best of 1m 52.225s which remained unchallenged at the end of the session giving the championship leader the best possible end to his Saturday.

He is joined on the front row by title rival and Misano race winner Augusto Fernandez (Flexbox HP40), who ran around with his Pons team mate Lorenzo Baldassarri in an attempt to make slipstream gains down the straight, but ended his day 0.125s behind his compatriot. Baldassarri starts eleventh.

Third went to Brad Binder, the race winner at Aragon in 2018, who made big gains towards the end of the session, climbing from near the bottom of the standings to a front row start from nowhere as he pushed and wrestled the Red Bull KTM Ajo to the limit.

That late run pushed Luca Marini (Sky Racing Team VR46) down to fourth and Tom Luthi (Dynavolt IntactGP) to fifth - the Swiss rider never improving from his early timesheet-topping flying lap.

Jorge Navarro impressed again on the Speed Up and was in the mix for a front row start before being shuffled back to sixth.

Xavi Vierge took seventh on the second Marc VDS entry ahead of the late improving Nicolo Bulega, who climbed from 14th to eighth as the session drew to a close for Sky Racing Team VR46.

Sam Lowes was confident enough to ride solo early on but late improvements eluded him, leaving the Brit ninth for Gresini.

Iker Lecuona topped the session early on for American Racing KTM and held on for a top ten start.

Rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio (HDR Heidrun Speed UP), who just missed out on the win in San Marino after starting on pole, was the best of the riders to move up from Q1 - he starts twelfth.
 

British rider Jake Dixon was eleventh in Q1, leaving him 25th on the grid for the Gaviota Angel Nieto Team.

Adam Norrodin was withdrawn from the event by the Petronas Team following his nasty practice fall.

The crashed-filled race at Misano left it’s mark on the Aragon entry list - Both Marcel Schrotter and Mattia Pasini were ruled out with Jesko Raffin (Dynavolt IntactGP) and Gabriele Ruiu (Tasca Racing) replacing them. Raffin qualified 22nd while Ruiu is at the back of the grid in 31st.

Dimas Ekky Pratama remains absent, this time Gerry Salim is his stand-in at Idemitsu Honda Team Asia - he starts 30th.