Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) produced a heroic effort to earn his 10th MotoGP™ career pole position, as another crucial premier class race awaits at the Gran Premio Michelin® de Aragon. To get you revved up, check out 10 stats that have emerged from Saturday’s qualifying!
1. The Aragon GP race will be the first since Rio 1999 where no current or former premier class Champion will be on the grid for the premier class race.
2. Quartararo has qualified on pole position for the fourth time of the season along with Spain, Andalucia and France – it’s his 10th time overall in MotoGP™.
3. This is the third pole position by a Yamaha rider at MotorLand Aragon in MotoGP™, along with Jorge Lorenzo in 2012 and Maverick Viñales in 2017. Neither went on to win the race.
4. This is Yamaha’s eighth pole position since the opening race of the season in Spain, which is the first time there are eight Yamaha pole positions in the opening 10 MotoGP™ races of a single season since 2009. In that year, Yamaha riders also took eight pole positions in the 10 opening races.
5. Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) has qualified in third place, which is his first front row start since he was also third in Austin last year. In addition, this is the third front row start by a Honda rider so far this season along with Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) in Spain and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) in Styria.
6. After passing through Q1, Jack Miller (Pramac Racing), who finished third last year at MotorLand and starts his 150th GP race on Sunday, has qualified in fifth as the highest-placed Ducati rider. This is the seventh successive time he starts from the front two rows on the grid.
7. Second in the Championship Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) has qualified in sixth place, which is best qualifying result since he was the fourth-fastest qualifier in Styria this year (although he started from third). This is only the third time this year he starts from the front two rows of the grid, along with Austria and Styria.
8. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) has qualified ninth, which is his best qualifying result – as well as the best of an Aprilia rider – since he was fourth in Brno earlier this year. He finished sixth in both 2017 and 2018 at MotorLand (sixth is the best result by an Aprilia rider since the introduction of MotoGP™ in 2002).
9. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) has qualified 10th as the second-placed Suzuki rider, which is his best qualifying result since he was seventh in San Marino this year. He finished fourth in 2018 at MotorLand, his best result at the track so far in MotoGP™.
10. Alex Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), who joined Q2 for the first time so far in his rookie season, has qualified in 11th. This is his best qualifying result in MotoGP™ and with Crutchlow, Nakagami and Marquez, this is the first time there are three Honda riders within the top 12 in qualifying since Malaysia last year.