Aragon MotoGP Sunday Guide
Statistics compiled by Dr. Martin Raines
MotoGP
• Marc Marquez starts from pole in Aragon for the third successive year. A victory for Marquez would make him the youngest ever rider to reach the milestone of 50 grand prix wins.
• Jorge Lorenzo starts from the front row of the grid for the eleventh time this year. Lorenzo has been on the podium in Aragon for the last four years, including a race victory last year.
• Andrea Iannone starts from third place on the grid, his first front row start since he was on pole at Mugello, which was also the last time he finished on the podium, in second place.
• Pol Espargaro heads the second row of the grid – his best qualifying result since he was fourth fastest qualifier at Jerez. Espargaro has won at Aragon in both of the smaller classes of grand prix racing, the 125cc race in 2010 and the Moto2 race in 2012.
• Dani Pedrosa is in fifth place on the grid, the first time that he has not qualified on the front row at the Aragon circuit.
• In sixth place on the grid is Valentino Rossi at one of only two current circuits, along with COTA, where he has not had a grand prix win.
• The highest placed Suzuki rider on the grid is Aleix Espargaro at the head of the third row – his best qualifying result since the German Grand Prix.
• In eighth place on the grid is Cal Crutchlow, the third place finisher last year in Aragon – his only podium finish on the Ducati.
• In the final place on the third row is Danilo Petrucci, who has been the first Ducati rider across the line at the last two races.
• Bradley Smith starts the race from tenth place on the grid – his worst qualifying performance since the Dutch TT.
• The top qualifier in the Open Class for the first time is Eugene Laverty, in fifteenth place on the grid.
• In twenty-first place on the grid is Alvaro Bautista who is making his 100th start in the MotoGP class.
Moto2
• Tito Rabat is on pole for the second time this year – his other was at Jerez back in May. The reigning Moto2 world champion has won just a single race (at Mugello earlier this year) in the last eighteen races since he won at Misano last year.
• This is the fifteenth pole for Rabat in the Moto2 class, giving him the record for most Moto2 pole positions, with a single pole more than both Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro.
• Alex Rins, who won the Moto3 race at Aragon two years ago, is on the front row for the fifth successive race.
• World championship leader Johann Zarco is in third place on the grid. Zarco will be attempting to finish on the podium for the thirteenth successive race.
• Sam Lowes, starting from fourth place on the grid, will be aiming to get back on the podium for the first time since he finished third at the Dutch TT.
• Takaaki Nakagami starts the race from fifth place on the grid – his best qualifying result since the French Grand Prix. Nakagami finished third two weeks ago at Misano, which was his first podium finish for two years.
• Taking the final place on the second row is Alex Marquez – his best qualifying result so far in his rookie season in the Moto2 class.
Moto3
• Enea Bastianini starts from pole for the fourth time in 2015 and for the second successive race. Following his first ever grand prix win two weeks ago at Misano, Bastianini could become the third youngest Italian rider to win back-to-back grand prix races after Marco Melandri and Loris Capirossi.
• In second place on the grid is Miguel Oliveira, who will be targeting back-to-back podium finishes for the first time in his grand prix career.
• Danny Kent, who has qualified on the front row for the sixth successive race, finished third at Aragon last year, one of just two podium finishes he had in 2014.
• Heading the second row of the grid is Jorge Martin – his best qualifying result so far in his rookie season in grand prix racing.
• In fifth place on the grid is Jorge Navarro, who crashed out at Aragon in 2012 when making his grand prix debut and crashed out again at Aragon last year in his second GP appearance at the circuit.
• Nico Antonelli has qualified in the final place on the second row of the grid. Antonelli has finished on the podium at the last three successive races, having not been on the podium in his previous sixty-one grand prix appearances.
• Romano Fenati, the winner of the Moto3 race at Aragon last year, has qualified in tenth place on the grid.
