Francesco Bagnaia secured pole position at the Aragon Grand Prix as the Ducati superstar hopes to win a fifth race in a row on Sunday.
The Italian has overturned a 91-point deficit to sit just 30 points behind reigning world champion Fabio Quartataro. Bagnaia will be joined on the front row by fellow Ducati drivers Jack Miller and Enea Bastianini.
Quartararo will start from the second row in sixth place after pushing his Yamaha to the limit. The Frenchman recently aired grievances towards the Italian team as he accused them of pitting seven riders together to help Bagnaia win his maiden world championship.
However, 2003 Superbike World Champion and BY Sport presenter Neil Hodgson refuted Quartararo’s speculation. He insisted Ducati riders will still want to race for themselves given there is plenty of races and points available, while he pointed to Jack Millers’s exit and move to KTM Red Bull as reason the Australian will yearn for a fourth race win.
“I honestly don’t see it as the Ducatis against the Yamaha. I don’t,” Hodgson told Mirror Sport. “Our sport doesn’t work like that.
“There are six rounds left, 150 points up for grabs still - there are no team orders at this stage. If Jack Miller can win the race, he will. He won’t do anything stupid, but he will go for it - how many chances do you get to win a Grand Prix?”
Fellow BT Sport presenter and former racer Michael Laverty spoke of the might of the Ducati team on current form - particularly in qualifying. He believes the Italian outfit have found their ideal qualifying performance, which spells bad news for Quartararo and the rest of the grid.
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He also heralded the unpredictable nature of the MotoGP world championship race following Bagnaia’s impressive return to form. Laverty told Mirror Sport: “Three Ducatis at the front is to be expected at the moment.
“For the first 300 races Ducati had never had a front row lockout of the grid - but now they’ve had seven in the last 10 races. It’s a bit of a bummer for Fabio [Quartararo] being stuck behind them, it will be a tough race for him tomorrow.
“It’s been a crazy season. We were saying it was championship over and Fabio just needed to go through the motions - but the summer break came. Pecco had the time off, reset himself and realised the onus was on him if he wanted to be world champion.
“He’s come back so strong and focused on what he needs to do, and he’s ripping up the timesheets and getting the points. Momentum is on his side, but Fabio can still control things. It’s far from over yet!”
Meanwhile, six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez made his long-awaited return at Aragon 110 days after last racing at Mugello. The Spaniard opted to undergo a fourth major operation on his badly broken right arm, and he qualified 13th.
BT Sport is the home of MotoGP. Watch all the live action from MotoGP Aragon on BT Sport 2 from 16 – 18 September. Find out more at bt.com/sport/motogp
