Marquez puts crash aside to land provisional Q2 in Aragon

Alex Marquez went some way to proving his podium breakthrough in the wet at Le Mans can be replicated in the dry as he placed himself in a provisional Q2 spot for the first time this season after FP2 at Motorland Aragon.

A race that has been dominated by his brother Marc for the past four years - so much so there is a corner named after him already - Alex arrives on home soil on the back of a superb run to second in rainy France.

However, having tempered his celebrations with the assertion he must now replicate that form in dry conditions, he made a good step towards this goal as he fought inside the top ten of both Friday practice sessions at Aragon.

Brushing off a typical Turn 2 front-end crash in FP1 to take the Repsol Honda to fourth quickest, a rapid final lap on soft rubber in FP2 - an area he has struggled in 2020 - brought him into eighth place. With cold conditions forecast for FP3, he is hoping it is enough to secure him a Q2 spot for the first time this year.

“I felt good today on track, it’s a circuit I really like, and I normally feel very comfortable here with my riding style,” he said.” The Honda is also quite good here. I had a rookie crash in the morning but in the afternoon, we managed everything quite well and we tried some different options for the front. 

“Tomorrow morning, even with the delay, I think it will be tricky to improve our lap time with the expected temperature, so I was working a lot in FP2 to put myself in a strong position to fight for Q2. 

“I did a good last lap and I am pleased with how it went but you never know in MotoGP! Let’s see what happens in FP3 tomorrow."