Aragon MotoGP Sunday Race Day Guide

Aragon MotoGP Sunday Race Day Guide – Warm up results – Last minute updates

Statistics compiled by Dr. Martin Raines

• Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) has qualified on pole at Aragon for the fourth successive year, but is looking for his first win at this circuit since 2013. Marquez has not won in Spain since the final race of 2014 in Valencia.
• Marquez has qualified with a lap time 0.631 seconds faster than Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in second place on the grid. This is the biggest time margin that anyone has headed the MotoGP grid after a dry qualifying session since Marquez was on pole at Le Mans in 2014 with a margin of 0.692 seconds ahead of Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3).

• Viñales, who starts from second place on the grid, equals his best qualifying result in the MotoGP class and takes his third successive front row start. Viñales won the Moto2 race at Aragon two years ago from pole position.

• Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), the winner at Aragon for the last two years, has qualified in third place on the grid. Lorenzo has not finished either first or second since he won at Mugello in May. Lorenzo fell on his out-lap during morning warm up.

• Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) is the highest placed Ducati rider in qualifying and makes it four different manufacturers in the top four places on the grid.
• Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) is the best qualifier from the Independent Teams in fifth place on the grid.

• Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) starts from the final place on the second row, which is the same grid position as last year at Aragon when he finished third. Aragon is one of just three circuits on the current schedule where Rossi has not had a MotoGP victory, along with Austin and the Red Bull Ring.
• Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) heads the third row, one place higher on the grid than two weeks ago in Misano when he went on to win the race
• In eighth place on the grid is Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) at the circuit where he scored his only podium in the MotoGP class. He was second two years ago on the Forward Yamaha.
• Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) starts from ninth place on the grid, which is his best qualifying result since the German GP.
• Stefan Bradl (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) is in 12th place on the grid, which is his best qualifying result since the final race of 2014 at Valencia when riding a Honda.
• Alex Lowes will not take part in the Aragon Grand Prix after being deemed unfit due to a fall at turn 16 in yesterday’s morning practice where he injured his left foot. An X-ray was undertaken that revealed that no bones were broken, yet swelling and contusion to his foot meant that he was forced to sit out yesterday afternoon’s action. His injury did not improve overnight and after being re-examined by the medical staff this morning, he has subsequently been declared unfit. The young Briton was standing in for the recuperating Bradley Smith who is recovering from an injury sustained at the Oschersleben 8 Hours event, which caused him to miss the last three rounds.

Moto2

• Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) is on pole for the fifth time in 2016. From his previous four poles this year he has had three podium finishes, including a victory at Jerez.
• Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) is in second place on the grid, which is his best qualifying result since moving up to the Moto2 class
• Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), who has finished on the podium at the last two races, starts from third place on the grid, which is his fourth front row start of 2016.

• Jonas Folger (Dynavolt Intact GP) heads the second row of the grid, which is his best dry weather qualifying result since he was second fastest qualifier at the Spanish Grand Prix.
• Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) has qualified in fifth place on the grid, ending a sequence of seven successive front row starts.
• Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Racing), who starts from sixth place on the grid, will be aiming to become the first Italian rider to take backtoback victories in the Moto2 class
• Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40), who has qualified in 13th place, is the only rider on the grid that has won a grand prix at the Aragon circuit in Moto3 in 2013.

Moto3

• For the first time since the Czech GP last year, all of the riders on the front row for the Moto3 race are on Honda machinery.
• No Honda rider has won in the Moto3 class from pole since Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing Moto3) at Misano last year, and Honda has never won a lightweight class grand prix at the Aragon circuit.
• Bastianini, who starts on pole for the third time in 2016, has not stood on the top step of the podium since the San Marino Grand Prix last year. Bastianini was on pole in Aragon last year, but crashed on the final lap together with Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo).

• Jorge Navarro (Estrella Galicia 0,0) is in second place on the grid, which is his first front row start since the Catalan Grand Prix when he went on to take his first GP win. That was the last time he stood on the podium.
• In third place on the grid is EG 0,0 rider Aron Canet, which is his third front row start in his rookie grand prix season.
• Heading the second row is Phillip Oettl (Schedl Racing GP), which is his best grid position since he was on pole in Austin.
• Championship leader Brad Binder, who is on the second row, has never finished higher than 8th at the Aragon Grand Prix.