Aragon MotoGP: Vinales takes pole ahead of Lorenzo, Rossi third

Maverick Vinales took pole position for MotoGP's Aragon Grand Prix in a thrilling qualifying session, where Marc Marquez crashed and an injured Valentino Rossi snatched a front-row spot.

Jorge Lorenzo will start second, while joint-points leader - with Marquez - Andrea Dovizioso finished down in seventh.

Marquez, who has been on pole at Aragon every year since making his premier class debut in 2013, seemed well set for a fifth consecutive pole at the Spanish track at the halfway stage of Q2, after he became the first rider to break the 1m48-second barrier this weekend.

The reigning champion's benchmark of 1m47.963s put him three tenths up on the pack, led by Q1 pacesetter Jorge Lorenzo, before Vinales slotted between his two countrymen on a 1m48.142s.

But at the start of the final runs, Marquez's pole bid unravelled as the Honda rider suffered a high-speed off at Turn 12 with two minutes left on the clock.

Moments later, Yamaha's Rossi - just 23 days on from breaking his right leg in a motocross crash - jumped to the top of the times on a 1m47.815s.

But any hopes of the Italian taking a shock pole on his MotoGP return were ended by his teammate Vinales, who went 0.180s faster on a 1m47.635s.

Ducati rider Lorenzo then split the Yamahas with a time exactly one tenth slower than Vinales.

Cal Crutchlow ended up best of the Hondas on his satellite LCR machine in fourth, only 0.015s behind Rossi, while Marquez found himself pushed down to fifth, ahead of team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Dovizioso was subdued on the second factory Ducati, half a second down on Vinales.

Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati) and Andrea Iannone (Suzuki) completed the top 10, while Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco and KTM wildcard Mika Kallio completed the Q2 field.

Kallio had embarrassed both of KTM's regular riders by qualifying directly into Q2 with the fifth-fastest time in practice, but crashed late on and was demoted to 12th.

Starting grid

Pos	Rider	Team	Gap
1	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	1m47.635s
2	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	0.100s
3	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	0.180s
4	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	0.195s
5	Marc Marquez	Honda	0.328s
6	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	0.472s
7	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	0.502s
8	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	0.524s
9	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	0.552s
10	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	0.654s
11	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	0.767s
12	Mika Kallio	KTM	0.836s
13	Jack Miller	MVDS Honda	0.672s
14	Pol Espargaro	KTM	0.752s
15	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	0.832s
16	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	1.273s
17	Loris Baz	Avintia Ducati	1.276s
18	Jonas Folger	Tech3 Yamaha	1.399s
19	Hector Barbera	Avintia Ducati	1.417s
20	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1.598s
21	Tito Rabat	MVDS Honda	1.623s
22	Scott Redding	Pramac Ducati	1.653s
23	Bradley Smith	KTM	1.943s
24	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	3.134s

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