Espargaró Gives Aprilia Historic Argentina GP Pole
Calum Gill 22:10 02/04/2022
Aprilia's Aleix Espargaró took the marque’s first premier-class pole since 2000 in an enthralling qualifying at Argentina’s Termas de Río Hondo.
The Noale firm’s first pole of the MotoGP era - with its previous having come courtesy of Jeremy McWilliams in the 500cc days - it was also the third of Espargaró’s premier-class career. His other two have come on two different bikes - the Forward Yamaha at Assen in 2014 and the Suzuki in Barcelona in 2015. Having topped the pre-qualifying FP2, Espargaró immediately reclaimed his place out front at the start of the pole shoot-out, going an initial three tenths clear of the chasing pack with a 01:38.108. This looked like it might prove good enough for pole by itself, yet Jorge Martín uncorked a phenomenal final sector to go a quarter of a second clear of the Aprilia man, forcing him to push again. However, Espargaró put together another strong lap with his final effort, ending up with a 01:37.688 that beat Pramac Ducati rider Martín by a tenth and a half.
VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini, who had narrowly snuck into a direct Q2 spot in FP2, followed Martín on the Spaniard’s fastest lap to complete the front row behind him. Pol Espargaró (Honda) will line up directly behind his brother Aleix in fourth, despite having had to fight through Q1 - having risked compromising his day with an early FP2 crash. Maverick Viñales had completed an Aprilia 1-2 behind the elder Espargaró in FP2 but had to settle for fifth in qualifying, just ahead of his former Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo. The reigning champion was left incensed by factory Ducati rider Jack Miller getting in his way on a crucial push lap late on, with Miller placing 11th - having crashed on his first Q2 attempt - and later receiving a 3-place grid penalty.
The Suzukis of Álex Rins and Joan Mir will head up row three - despite one of Mir’s bikes refusing to fire up at the start of Q2 - joined there by Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) was set to miss the weekend entirely with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, but, having tested negative just in time, fought through Q1 and wound up 10th, ahead of Miller and KTM’s Brad Binder - who had one of his KTM RC16s expire in a cloud of smoke during FP2. Gresini’s championship leader Enea Bastianini and his fellow Ducati rider Enea Bastianini were both within a few hundredths of progressing into Q2 yet ultimately came up short.
Bagnaia, who was frustrated by riders trying to follow him at the end of an FP2 session where his final attempt was thwarted by fellow Valentino Rossi protege Marco Bezzecchi overtaking him at Turn 1 and immediately crashing, couldn’t get anything going on his first run in Q1. Struggling to keep his Desmosedici anywhere near under control over the bumps, he ultimately improved substantially - but not sufficiently - on his second run. Yamaha factory rider Franco Morbidelli made it an all-Italian row five behind Bastianini and Bagnaia, with KTM’s Miguel Oliveira - the winner last time out at Mandalika - only managing to place 16th, 0.006 seconds up on rookie Bezzecchi. Honda tester Stefan Bradl, competing in place of Marc Márquez this weekend, was nine tenths off the pace in Q1 and will complete the grid.
