After the drama of FP3, Pol Espargaro was on the back foot going into qualifying and the Spaniard then qualified in P11 for his third home round of the year at MotorLand Aragon. With good pace in Warm Up to be third quickest and wanting to make a good start once the lights went out, the younger of the Espargaro brothers was ready to stage a fight back to come home top Independent Team rider once again - but made a mistake early on and dropped to P12. The fight back then began in earnest, with Espargaro finally crossing the line in P8.
Pol Espargaro (P8): "First of all, I have to thank the Tech3 team who did an amazing job this weekend with all the crashes that we had. The guys were always quick at repairing the bikes and today the motorcycle that I ran with felt very strong. However, I must say that I am a little bit disappointed with myself and the end result. I think we had some more bad luck yesterday and it penalised us to start from 11th on the grid. I was truly comfortable on the Yamaha today and I was confident about my chances, but unfortunately, I made a mistake at the beginning of the race and went wide at the end of the back straight and this is where I lost contact to the group in front of me. Without this slip-up, I would have probably been able to finish in front of Dani and my brother. Nevertheless, a top eight is still positive and the points that I collected are vital for my championship aspirations. Next up is the Japanese GP which is a very special race for me after my second consecutive Suzuka 8 Hours victory so I’m looking forward to seeing the Japanese fans again."