Marc Marquez stormed to pole position at Aragon, defeating Fabio Quartararo by over three-tenths of a second.
The Honda man looked set to dominate qualifying after going over a second faster than anyone else could manage on Friday, and duly continued this form as he sat 0.785 clear of Quartararo following the first runs of Q2.
While he improved on his second and final flyer in the closing seconds, he only shaved off a further 0.041 to post a 1:47.009-around two-tenths down from his Friday practice benchmark.
Only Quartararo looked good to challenge the runaway championship leader, the Petronas SRT rider posting three session-best sectors as he attacked on his final fast tour.
Unfortunately for the Frenchman though he lost roughly three-tenths in the final sector- principally made up of a long straight- and was forced to settle for second, although just 0.327 in-arrears of Marquez who scored his ninth pole of the season.
Maverick Vinales completed the front row for Yamaha-0.463 down on Marquez- while Jack Miller managed a solid salvage job for Ducati as he lines up fourth for tomorrow’s race on the Pramac-run GP19 machine.
Aleix Espargaro meanwhile secured an excellent fifth fastest time, his and Aprilia’s highest starting slot of the year so far and beating several fancied runners in the process.
Valentino Rossi will start sixth ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, while Q1 graduate Franco Morbidelli took a solid eighth on the second SRT M1.
The Italian led the way at the end of the opening session of qualifying, towing around Andrea Iannone to the second fastest time and his first Q2 appearance of the season-as well as the first time both Aprilia RS-GP machines have appeared in the pole position shootout.
Alex Rins just missed out as he gambled on running a hard compound rear tyre, coming just 0.157 short of joining Suzuki team-mate Joan Mir in Q2, limiting him to a 13th place start as a result.
Danilo Petrucci also struggled, the factory Ducati ace having to start 15th just behind Takaaki Nakagami, while KTM’s Mika Kallio managed the 19th quickest time ahead of Jorge Lorenzo’s Honda.
Completing the top ten positions for tomorrows grid were Mir’s GSX-RR in ninth with Andrea Dovizioso tenth-albeit a worrying 1.599 behind Marquez’s pole benchmark.
Iannone failed to get a decent lap together and will start 11th, while Pol Espargaro will miss the rest of the Aragon weekend after a heavy crash during the FP4 session shortly prior to qualifying.
He suffered a wrist injury as a consequence of the incident, and will now head to Barcelona for further treatment in order to be ready for the next round of the championship in Thailand in a fortnights time.
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