Aprilia Racing's Aleix Espargaro will line up on pole position at his home circuit for the second time in his career after he repeated his 2015 heroics. The Spaniard bagged top spot seven years ago whilst riding for Suzuki, but things didn't go to plan for him on Sunday. He was demoted to ninth by the time the field reached the opening corner on the first lap after a shocking start, so will history repeat itself or is the local favourite ready to right the wrongs of 2015? There's that and more in ten things you need to know ahead of the Monster Energy Catalan Grand Prix.
1. Aleix Espargaro has qualified on pole position for the fourth time in MotoGP™ by setting a new all-time lap record of the Circuit de Barcelona - Catalunya. It's the first time he's achieved more than one pole position with a factory as well after Assen in 2014 whilst riding a Forward Yamaha, Catalunya in 2015 with Suzuki and Argentina earlier this year with Aprilia. He will be aiming to give Aprilia podiums in five successive premier class races for the first time.
2. With Aleix Espargaro on pole position, this is the second pole position for Aprilia since the introduction of MotoGP™ in 2002 and the fourth overall in the premier class along with Tetsuya Harada in Italy in 1999 and Jeremy McWilliams in Australia in 2000.
3. Aprilia becomes the fifth manufacturer to qualify on pole position in Catalunya in the MotoGP™ era along with Honda (9 pole positions), Yamaha (8), Ducati (2) and Suzuki (1).
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4. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) has qualified second, which is the fourth time so far this year he has qualified on the front row. He will be aiming to win back-to-back races for the first time since the Algarve and Valencia Grands Prix last year.
5. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) has qualified third as the top Yamaha rider for his third front row start of the season, along with Indonesia (when he was on pole) and Spain (when he qualified second). He went on to take second in both races. He will be aiming to win for the second time this year along with Portugal and add a second Catalan GP victory to his name after taking the win in 2020.
6. This is Quartararo’s 39th front row in MotoGP™. Over his 38 previous front-row starts, he went on to finish on the podium 21 times (including seven of his nine premier class wins so far).
7. On pole position last weekend in Italy, rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Racing) has qualified fifth for this second-best qualifying result of the season so far.
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8. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) has qualified sixth, which is the first time he has qualified within the front two rows since the Americas GP earlier this year when he was on pole position. He will be aiming to stand on the podium for the second time so far this year along with Argentina when he was P2.
9. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) has qualified seventh as the top Suzuki rider, equalling his best qualifying result of the season from Argentina and America earlier this year, when he finished on the podium both times.
10. After passing through Q1, Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) has qualified eighth for his second-best qualifying result since he joined Aprilia, after Argentina earlier this year when he qualified fifth. He will be aiming to stand on the podium for the first time with Aprilia.