We were starting to get used to finding four Ducatis in the first five places, but this morning, when third practice session of the 15th round of the MotoGP World Championship on the Motorland Aragón circuit, in Spain, the Borgo Panigale machines achieved a solid 5 out of 5, all in less than a tenth of a second, thus unfortunately confirming the pessimistic predictions of the championship leader, fabio quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP).
Finally, Jack Miller, Francis Bagnaia, Marco Bezzecchi, Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martín, Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira, fabio quartararo, Takaaki Nakagami et Alex Rins have therefore pre-qualified directly for Qualification 2 and have just been joined by Aleix Espargaró et Johann zarco, drafted in Qualification 1.
Faced with this overwhelming offensive from the red armada, everyone will only have 15 minutes to defend their chances and finalize their position on the first four rows of the starting grid of an Aragon Grand Prix which will take place over 23 laps .
The sky is beautiful, the track is beautiful: Let's go!
Here are the past references:
Aragon MotoGP™ |
2021 |
2022 |
FP1 |
1'48.048 Marc Márquez (See here) |
1'48.686 Aleix Espargaró (See here) |
FP2 |
1'47.613 Jack Miller (See here) |
1'47.402 Jorge Martín (See here) |
FP3 |
1'46.926 Fabio Quartararo (See here) |
1'46.992 Jack Miller (See here) |
FP4 |
1'48.116 Marc Marquez (See here) |
1'47.430 Miguel Oliveira (See here) |
Q1 |
1'47.293 Johann Zarco (See here) |
1'46.569 Aleix Espargaró (See here) |
Q2 |
1'46.322 Francesco Bagnaia (See here) |
1'46.069 Francesco Bagnaia (See here) |
Warm up |
1'48.054 Francesco Bagnaia (See here) |
(See here) |
Course |
Pecco Bagnaia, Marc Marquez, Joan Mir (See here) |
(See here) |
All time lap record |
1'46.322 Francesco Bagnaia (2021) |
1'46.069 Francesco Bagnaia (See here) |
When the red lights go out… it’s Aleix Espargaro who sets off first, still hot from his repechage in Q1.
Game on! 🚦#AragonGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/0g3DlDQaxW
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) September 17, 2022
If everyone uses a soft rear tire, Alex Rins et Jack Miller do the same at the front while their opponents are equipped as tough guys.
Aleix Espargaró registered the first reference in 1'48.742 but was immediately overwhelmed by a Ducati mound, Enea Bastianini in the lead in 1'46.580 after the first flying lap!
The Beast throws in a big benchmark for a first lap! 👊@ Bestia23 sets at 1:46.580! 🔥#AragonGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/hyaGsQhuOr
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) September 17, 2022
On the next pass, while everyone had lit the first sectors in red, the reference time of the Rimini driver is curiously not improved, even if the best top speed goes up another notch to 354,1 km/h, much to the chagrin of fabio quartararo.
This is where the Yamaha suffers! 🥵@FabioQ20 loses almost four tenths in the last split! 💨#AragonGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/RKswsDZydM
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) September 17, 2022
After these two laps with maximum attack, it's already back to the box to change the rear tire.
We then find Enea Bastianini before Francesco Bagnaia, Jack Miller, Brad Binder, Álex Rins, Johann Zarco, Fabio Quartararo, Miguel Oliveira, Marco Bezzecchi, Takaaki Nakagami, Aleix Espargaró and Jorge Martín.
At the start, half of the pilots further improved the first sectors and Francis Bagnaia recorded 1'46.069, a new absolute circuit record!
POLE FOR @PeccoBagnaia! 🥇
There's simply no stopping the Ducati man at the moment! 🔥#AragonGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/9ycLS2NpUS
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) September 17, 2022
At the very end of the session, Fabio Quartararo gives everything he can and snatches a place on the 2nd row, just behind his compatriot John Zarco.
Just LOOK at how hard @FabioQ20 is pushing! 🥵#AragonGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/WKbkwseGRq
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) September 17, 2022
Results of Qualifying 2 of the Aragón MotoGP Grand Prix:
Results of Qualifying 1 of the Aragón MotoGP Grand Prix:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com