Marquez secures third consecutive MotoGP pole

Marc Marquez will start his third consecutive MotoGP race from pole after setting the fastest time in qualifying at Aragon.

The Spaniard waited until the final moments of the session to smash the lap record with a time of 1m47.804s. Jorge Lorenzo was the first to beat Casey Stoner's record time and held provisional pole until Stefan Bradl and Marquez demoted him in quick succession.

Lorenzo soon picked up the pace but with his works Yamaha down on outright speed along the straight in the final sector, he was unable to reclaim his place at the top of the times.

Dani Pedrosa joins teammate Marquez on the front row in third, he was fastest in the final free practice session and looks strong ahead of tomorrow's race.

Valentino Rossi starts from fourth alongside Bradl, who dropped down the order during the flurry of activity toward the end of the session, with Alvaro Bautista claiming sixth for Gresini. Tech 3's Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith share the third row of the grid with Andrea Dovizioso.

Smith was forced to participate in Q1 after struggling during practice, but alongside Andrea Iannone was able to escape into Q2 and found sizeable gains to capture eighth.

Pramac's new recruit Yonny Hernandez had threatened to upstage Iannone towards the end of Q1 when he temporarily went second quickest, but starts from 13th.

Newcomer Luca Scassa and returnee Damian Cudlin were 22th and 24th for Cardion AB and Paul Bird, respectively.