Marquez annihilates Aragon lap record to seize seventh pole position in 2015; Rossi 6th, Lorenzo second

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has taken a magnificent pole position – his seventh of the season – for tomorrow’s Aragon GP breaking his 2014 pole record (1’47.187) by over half a second. Teammate Dani Pedrosa had a provisional front row for the majority of the session but was demoted in the final moments and will start from 5th place.

The Repsol Honda’s have had a strong second day in Aragon, with Marc leading this morning’s FP3 session and Dani topping FP4. On his first flying lap of qualifying, Marc obliterated his own pole record by 0.552 seconds with his time of 1’46.635 (lap 2/7), sending him straight to the top, with Dani also taking a provisional front row place on his first exit.

On their second exits, Marc was unable to improve but remained in the top spot, Dani improved with a time of 1’47.357 (lap 6/8) and remained in third place. Marc then came in for another new tyre but on his flying lap he lost the front in turn two and the bike ended up in the gravel. His time remained unbeaten and Marc celebrated his fifth pole in six appearances at Aragon. Unfortunately Dani was not able to improve and was knocked off the front row in the final moments of the session. He will start from the second row of the grid in 5th.

The riders were blessed with more sunny and fine conditions today which provided ample opportunity to test their favoured tyre combinations. As expected, the morning Free Practice 3 session experienced very cool track temperatures, but the sunshine helped the asphalt reach a peak temperature of 38°C during Qualifying Practice 1. The varied nature of the MotorLand Aragon circuit makes tyres that can provide a good balance of cornering grip, braking stability and temperature retention a valued commodity and accordingly, the medium compound front and rear slicks emerged as the favourite slick options during race simulations today. It is expected that the vast majority of riders will use this tyre combination for the race, although a number of open-class riders will likely opt for the soft compound rear slick for tomorrow’s twenty-three lap Aragon Grand Prix.