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Aragon MotoGP qualifying
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But Nakagami will! He nicks the second Q2 transfer spot by half a tenth from Franco Morbidelli.
Zarco is over a tenth up after three sectors, but comes up short yet again. He's third, he will not advance.
Rossi is at the chequered flag. He's eighth! He has mismanaged this session completely.
Checkered flag
Chequered flag, Vinales comes through without an improvement.
Zarco moves up to third, having lost a lot of time in the final sector.
Smith has been impeded by a cruising pack behind Vinales! He was on for a provisional second after three seconds, but came up on traffic and hasn't made up any ground.
While Rossi is cruising, Zarco starts his push lap, followed by Abraham.
On the out-lap, Vinales is nowhere near Rossi. Instead, he is currently towing Morbidelli and Nakagami, which is less than ideal for his team.
Rossi is looking around as he exits pitlane. Is he searching for Vinales with the aim of following his factory teammate to a quicker lap?
Four minutes left on the clock, Rossi and Zarco head back out.
Information
Q1 order after the opening runs: 1 Vinales; 2 Morbidelli; 3 Nakagami; 4 Zarco; 5 Rossi; 6 Abraham; 7 Smith; 8 Syahrin; 9 A Espargaro; 10 Redding; 11 Luthi; 12 Simeon; 13 Torres.
Newcomer Torres is 2.3s off the pace, under seven tenths down on Avintia regular Xavier Simeon. A very respectable effort.
There's two tenths between Vinales and nearest rival Morbidelli, and four tenths between Morbidelli and Nakagami in third. Zarco and Rossi are further adrift and look in trouble.
The laptime gets away from Vinales the second tiem by, as he comes up a tenth short. He remains top of the timesheets.
This is Vinales' quickest lap of the weekend so far, and he's going quicker still on his second attempt. Rossi was only fourth on his first try, behind Morbidelli and Zarco.
Stopwatch
Morbidelli finds a further six tenths, before Vinales fires in a 1m47.823s.
Stopwatch
The first lap is on the board, and it's a 1m48.804s from Nakagami. That will not be enough for sure.
A rider to watch out for today is Avintia Ducati's Jordi Torres, standing in for the injured Tito Rabat after Misano debutant Christophe Ponsson wasn't allowed to continue in this role here.
Torres has been considerably closer than Ponsson to the pack, but he's still probably set for last place - and will likely count qualifying a success if he can lap within a second of the next-slowest rider.
Torres has been considerably closer than Ponsson to the pack, but he's still probably set for last place - and will likely count qualifying a success if he can lap within a second of the next-slowest rider.
Green flag
The 15-minute Q1 kicks off.
We're down to a sole KTM again in Bradley Smith, as the luckless Pol Espargaro crashed in FP3 and fractured his collarbone again.
Information
Q1 line-up: Vinales; Smith; Morbidelli; Zarco; A Espargaro; Abraham; Nakagami; Rossi; Luthi; Syahrin; Redding; Simeon; Torres.
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One manufacturer that almost certainly won't be participating in the pole battle is Yamaha, as all four of its bikes are in Q1 on merit.
Even by the standards of the Iwata marque's indifferent recent form, this weekend has been an unmitigated disaster, both for the works bikes and for the Tech 3 Yamahas.
Vinales did place sixth in FP4 just now, providing the tiniest speck light at the end of a very long tunnel - as Rossi toiled in 18th place.
Even by the standards of the Iwata marque's indifferent recent form, this weekend has been an unmitigated disaster, both for the works bikes and for the Tech 3 Yamahas.
Vinales did place sixth in FP4 just now, providing the tiniest speck light at the end of a very long tunnel - as Rossi toiled in 18th place.
Checkered flag
Chequered flag in FP4, Jorge Lorenzo has topped the session for Ducati, from Iannone, Petrucci, Dovizioso and Miller.
That's four Ducatis in the top five.
That's four Ducatis in the top five.
Crash
Mind you, while the fastest laptime of the weekend so far belongs to Marquez, he has suffered a setback in FP4, sending his bike tubmling through the gravel in a Turn 7 crash.
This means he could be down to one bike for qualifying, which would eliminate that margin for error that Marquez often makes use of.
This means he could be down to one bike for qualifying, which would eliminate that margin for error that Marquez often makes use of.
Friday practice suggested we could be in for another three-way battle between Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso.
It's been three defeats for Marquez against the Ducatis in a row, but in the meantime he's stretched his championship lead to 67 points.
He's managed it incredibly well - but Motorland Aragon, given his previous record here and the fact one of its corners is named after him, is definitely among those tracks where Marquez would be unlikely to happily settle for second or third.
It's been three defeats for Marquez against the Ducatis in a row, but in the meantime he's stretched his championship lead to 67 points.
He's managed it incredibly well - but Motorland Aragon, given his previous record here and the fact one of its corners is named after him, is definitely among those tracks where Marquez would be unlikely to happily settle for second or third.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of MotoGP qualifying at Motorland Aragon, the third of the four Spanish tracks that the championship is visiting in 2018.
By: Matt Beer
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