Montmeló — Aleix Espargaro rode his Aprilia into pole position for the Catalonia MotoGP after topping the times in Saturday's qualifying for the ninth round of the world championship.
The Spaniard will be joined on the front row on Sunday by Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia, who won last week in Italy, and the Yamaha of world champion Fabio Quartararo.
Espargaro lies eight points adrift of Quartararo in the standings and will have high hopes of lifting his local race after emerging fastest in second, third and fourth practice.
In Free Practice 3 he blitzed to a new lap record of 1min 38.771 at the circuit outside Barcelona.
After a promising start to the season, there was more disappointment for South Africa’s Brad Binder, who qualified in 15th, while brother Darryn could only manage 23rd.
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AFP
