Aragon MotoGP, Qualifying Results | Brilliant Bagnaia leads Ducati 1-2 in Spain

Pecco Bagnaia has taken a stunning second career pole positon for the Aragon MotoGP as Ducati sent out a message to its rivals with a 1-2 showing in qualifying at Motorland Aragon.

While most eyes were on Fabio Quartararo to see whether he could maintain his incredible run of Saturday form after shining in FP3, it was Bagnaia that would swipe the rug from under his rival’s feet with a lap record-breaking performance.

Punching in a time of 1m 46.322secs, Bagnaia ended the session with 0.3secs in hand of both his rivals and the erstwhile record, setting him up for what would be a timely maiden MotoGP win in his attempts to close down the sizeable 65 point margin to Quartararo.

Aiding his attempts will be team-mate Jack Miller, who will sit between Bagnaia and Quartararo on the front row, marking an impressive turnaround from the Ducati squad having struggled for form at the circuit in 2020.

Despite missing out on pole, this is nonetheless the 12th time - in 13 races - Quartararo will have started on the front row, though the Yamaha will be alarmed to see almost all of the 0.3secs margin lost in the final sector containing the long back straight.

Eyeing up his first front row start of the year, Marc Marquez looked on course before being bumped off by Miller, the Spaniard - a five-time MotoGP winner at Aragon - still well placed in fourth.

He starts alongside the rider he took out in an accident at Silverstone, Jorge Martin, the rookie once again shining on the Pramac Ducati, while Aleix Espargaro launched into sixth place following a late improvement.

Joan Mir was a frustrated seventh despite producing one of his best Q2 performances of the year, ahead of Pol Espargaro in eighth and the impressive Enea Bastianini, the Italian making the most of reaching Q2 for the first time by going ninth.

Having made it through Q1, Johann Zarco and Brad Binder (10th and 12th) will share the fourth row with Takaaki Nakagami in 11th.

With Zarco and Binder make it over the Q1 hurdle, it left a handful of notable names forced to watch the pole position battle from the pit lane.

The most notable of these was arguably Alex Rins, the race winner at Aragon last year. Though that was achieved from 10th on the grid in 2020, this time he will attempt to salvage a good results from a worst-of-the-season 20th instead. 

Among those he will need to get past include Iker Lecuona and Alex Marquez - who finished second behind Rins in 2020 - who get underway from 13th and 14th, plus Cal Crutchlow, who couldn’t quite replicate his top three form from FP2 as he starts from 15th.

Elsewhere, Miguel Oliveira’s difficult return from injury continued with just 18th as the lowest placed KTM rider, while Maverick Vinales produced a solid performance on his Aprilia debut to go 19th.

2021 Aragon MotoGP | Motorland Aragon | Qualifying RESULTS