As if it wasn't already a tough enough day for Yamaha, Maverick Vinales - along with Honda's Franco Morbidelli - has now been handed a grid penalty for Sunday's Aragon MotoGP. Vinales will drop three grid places (from 11th to 14th) and Morbidelli six places (from 14th to 19th) after both were judged to have been 'riding in an irresponsible manner, being slow on the racing line' and 'disturbing another rider' in qualifying. Marc VDS rookie Morbidelli got a harsher penalty than Vinales as it was a repeat offence. The reshuffle means that Johann Zarco becomes the top Yamaha on the grid, in 12th, Vinales having been the only M1 rider to make this afternoon's Qualifying 2 session. Factory team-mate Valentino Rossi starts 18th. Lots of riders were seen manoeuvring for a tow during today's MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 qualifying sessions, partly due to the long back straight. Pole position holder Jorge Lorenzo joked it was "like the Tour de France" and felt penalties were needed for riders waiting on track, especially in MotoGP: "In MotoGP we have the best riders, with the most experience and the biggest bikes. So, in my opinion, they shouldn't need to wait but it was like a Moto3 race." Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso agreed it's "not nice" but didn't feel penalties were needed today. World champion and fellow front row starter Marc Marquez, who was seen trying to follow Dovizioso, shrugged: "Racing is like this. Riders always try to follow the faster ones because it's easier. If you want to stop this completely you have to change qualifying. "The good thing in MotoGP is that if you slow down too much, the tyres will not be ready to make the lap time anyway." While the penalty statements don't name the rider(s) that were disturbed by Vinales and Morbidelli, KTM's Bradley Smith said they were both loitering at the end of the back straight in Qualifying 1: "My situation was just dangerous. You can't sit at the end of a back straight like they were. I caught Maverick unawares, Maverick tried to open, but if you're doing 150km/h and you open, you can't accelerate to 300km/h, it just doesn't happen. And Franco just didn't look behind. So Franco was just downright dangerous. "Simeon found himself in a similar situation, if he's a little bit more to the inside, basically you had three guys in the braking area, and you just can't do that." The Englishman said he doesn't have a problem with riders pulling over before the braking area and revealed it's not just a matter of getting a slipstream on the straight. "It's frustrating when guys pull over, but it's part of the game. MotoGP is so close now that if you can follow someone, get a bit of a tow, that's obviously going to improve your time. We don't see it very often in MotoGP, to be honest, as much as it was today, but it shows how important it is here in Aragon. "I think it's just the nature of this track, to have a bit of a reference here seems to help [as much as a tow], just eyes up and looking through the corner."<doc-sep>Brad Binder found blistering pace at the close of the session to jump up the timesheets and collect his first Moto2 pole position ahead of the Aragon Grand Prix, round fourteen of the championship. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider- who has good memories of the Motorland track as it served as the backdrop for claiming his Moto3 title , which he won with four rounds to spare back in 2016 - found some rare late pace to storm to the top spot from a provisional tenth in the closing moments of the session with a best of 1m53.149s. The South African set the fastest lap of the weekend to take top spot on the grid but it was an incredibly close session with all of the top nineteen within a second of his time. COTA #1 - Hamilton Vs Vettel Video of COTA #1 - Hamilton Vs Vettel Marcel Schrotter had dominated until then but his early lap eventually had to give best to Binder, leaving him second, marking the Dynavolt Intact GP rider’s best qualifying performance of 2018. The front row is completed by another Kalex machine - with Jorge Navarro keeping his upward trajectory going in third for Federal Oil Gresini - his best ever Moto2 qualifying result. Navarro had the rare honour of posting exactly the same time as another rider, with Alex Marquez also exactly 0.108 off pole. The EG 0,0 Marc VDS rider recovered well after being the first to crash, the front folding away at turn nine. Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia couldn’t compete for pole, he finished fifth for Sky Racing Team VR46, and although just 0.126s off the top time, the vital thousandths eluded him as it remained tight at the top. Bagnaia can still hope to increase his title lead from the second row as Miguel Oliveira had an even tougher time - the second Red Bull rider was not only beaten by his team-mate who took pole, but will have to chase down his Italian title rival from a distant 18th on the grid, despite getting lead around by Binder in the closing minutes. Mattia Pasini recorded a solid sixth for Italtrans, with Fabio Quartararo climbing to seventh for Speed Up. Lorenzo Baldassarri fills eighth on the grid as his final trip around the track failed to see him improve for Pons HP40. Simone Corsi takes ninth for Tasca Racing, with fellow Italian Luca Marini completing the top ten on the second Sky entry. Augusto Fernandez (Pons HP40) just missed out taking eleventh despite a tumble at turn fifteen. Elsewhere, Joan Mir was the best of the rookies in 15th for EG 0,0 Marc VDS and Edgar Pons put in a superb wildcard effort in 17th for AGR Team. Sam Lowes had a quiet session - ending up 19th for Swiss Innovative Investors, he was however still the top Brit with Danny Kent claiming 24th on the grid for Speed Up. Stefano Manzi (Forward Racing) placed 22nd, he had his third crash of the day in qualifying and still has a six place place grid penalty to be applied for his part in the incident with Fenati at Misano. Xavi Cardelus, who has run as a wildcard at most of the season with Team Stylobike has been announced as Romano Fenati’s replacement at Marinelli Snipers, he will start 34th, one place behind Sheridan Morais (Willi Race Racing Team) who returns to wildcard again in Spain.<doc-sep>In the wake of a disastrous Saturday at Aragon, Valentino Rossi admitted it has been difficult to maintain motivation in light of Yamaha’s continued struggles, and feels the issues at hand are so grave they cannot be remedied by work at the track. A crash at the close of FP3 was just the beginning of a desperate day in which he equaled the worst qualifying result – 18th – of his glittering 23-year grand prix career. One of the previous occasions he placed so low was just his second race on the world stage (Sentul, ‘96); the other was when he was badly injured (Assen, ’06). Rear grip, or rather a lack thereof, has plagued each of the four M1s present on the grid this weekend, and Rossi revealed not even set-up changes of great magnitude improved his feeling on track. “We have the feeling our work doesn’t change the problem," he said. It didn’t end there. A resigned Rossi showed few of the battling signs of team-mate Maverick Viñales, who vowed to give everything on Sunday in a bid to limit the damage. Perhaps the most damning comment was that tomorrow’s aim is “to try to take some points.” COTA #1 - Hamilton Vs Vettel Video of COTA #1 - Hamilton Vs Vettel “So today was a very difficult day already from the morning, because yesterday I was in the top 10, but my feeling with the bike was quite bad, especially after some laps with the tyres, so we tried to modify a lot,” said Rossi. “But also, this morning in FP3, I was very slow. So at the end, I tried for the lap with a new tyre, but I also crashed. So for the afternoon in FP4, we tried to do something else, so we modified quite a lot the bike. “But unfortunately, practice by practice, we have the feeling that what we can do in the box during the weekend, our normal work of setup, doesn't change our problem, because the feeling with the bike always remains difficult. And also the speed doesn't improve. “After, in the Q1, we made some confusion, I waited a bit too much, I was not able to make the lap. But anyway, also if I make the lap, I think I can improve the position, but unfortunately I don't have the speed to enter into Q2. “For tomorrow, we will try to do something else, we will try to modify the bike in another way, and we will see if we can make a better race, and I will try to take some points. I think this will be the target for tomorrow.” After a similarly lackluster Saturday showing in Austria last month, Yamaha project leader Kouji Tsuya made a near unprecedented public apology. Asked whether Japanese management had moved to recently reassure him, Rossi’s response indicated a real disconnect between factory and team. “It's very difficult to understand,” he said, “because in reality, we don't know a lot. We don't know what's happening in the future, we don't know the project, we don't know the details. “We hope that they can do something to try to improve the bike, because we have a lot of problems. In a track like this it's difficult in general, it's historically difficult for me, for the Yamaha, we suffer very much.” How are these recent issues affecting motivation? “In reality, I decided to bet everything, because I know that to go into the Q2, I need a lap behind somebody, and I waited,” he said. “But unfortunately, we waited too much, and I didn't do the lap. Maybe if I do the second lap, I can improve maybe half a second, I can start three or four positions more in front, but I tried everything, but unfortunately, I take the track. “For everybody, it's difficult to work like this. For the rider for sure, that anyway has to be inspired to go on the bike to give the maximum. But also for the rest of the team, no? “But I think that we work hard, the guys work very strong for FP4, because we changed another time all the bike, and they had to rebuild the bike of the crash. The problem of this situation is that you need a lot more work for a lot less result. So to keep the motivation is difficult<doc-sep>SPAIN’S Jorge Lorenzo secured his fourth pole position of the 2018 MotoGP season on Saturday by sneaking ahead of Andrea Dovizioso in qualifying at Aragon. Lorenzo beat his Italian Ducati team-mate by 0.014sec while Honda’s Marc Marquez was 0.079sec back in third. Marquez, who is chasing a fifth world championship title but is without a victory in his last four races, had set the pace with a time of 1.46.960sec. Get ready for cricket like never before. FREE Sport HD + Entertainment until the first 4K cricket ball as part of 2 months free on a 12 month plan. SIGN UP TODAY. T&Cs apply. RACE CENTRE: Click for results, live timing, live video streams TV TIMES: Watch the Aragon MotoGP LIVE on FOX SPORTS Jorge Lorenzo led his Ducati teammate Andrea Dovizioso home in qualifying. Source: AFP But the Spaniard paid the price for a mistake at Turn 12 on his final run as Lorenzo and Dovizioso both saved their best times until last. Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi managed to complete only one timed lap during the session. The Italian veteran qualified in a disappointing 18th, his lowest grid position since 2006. Britain’s Cal Crutchlow was pushed back into the second row after finishing fourth. He missed the chance to fight for a top-three spot after crashing out during his last lap. Jorge Lorenzo celebrates his first position. Source: AFP Crutchlow sits in front of Spain’s Dani Pedrosa, Italian Danilo Petrucci and another Spaniard, Alvaro Bautista, who came in sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. Marquez owns a 67-point lead over Dovizioso in the standings ahead of Sunday’s race, with Rossi sitting third, 70 points adrift. The race in Aragon is the 14th round of the championship and third of four events to be held in Spain this season. If you can’t see the blog console below, please click here.<doc-sep>
Full MotoGP qualifying results from Aragon Jorge Lorenzo has secured his third consecutive pole position for Ducati after seeing off team-mate Andrea Dovizioso and Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez by less than one-tenth of a second, while Valentino Rossi’s Aragon nightmare continued down in 18th. With a multiple-rider fight for pole position emerging on the final qualifying laps of Q2, Lorenzo produced a blitzing time of 1m 46.881s to jump from the second row to the top of the grid, beating Dovizioso’s provisional pole by just 0.014s. Marquez, who held pole following the opening runs in Q2, slipped down to third after failing to improve during his second run. The Honda rider, who fell in final practice, was clearly seeking a tow behind Dovizioso but then made a mistake on his last lap, while Dovi also lost time passing Bautista. COTA #1 - Hamilton Vs Vettel Video of COTA #1 - Hamilton Vs Vettel LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow crashed out of his final qualifying lap which denied him the chance to join the pole position fight and was duly pushed on to the second row by the charging factory Ducati duo. Andrea Iannone has continued to impress for Suzuki by slotting into the middle of the second row ahead of a resurgent Dani Pedrosa for Repsol Honda. Danilo Petrucci grabbed the front of the third row in seventh place for Pramac Ducati ahead of Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Ducati) in eighth and Alex Rins (Suzuki) in ninth. In Q1, the Yamaha problems deepened for Rossi as he tumbled down to eighth place to leave him a net 18th on the grid, his worst dry performance since Assen 2006, when he was injured. The Movistar Yamaha rider completed just one timed lap in the session while he struggled for pace throughout practice in hot conditions. Rossi appeared to be hunting a tow for his final qualifying lap in Q1 but failed to put a lap together to leave his best effort over eight-tenths of a second slower than team-mate Maverick Vinales who graduated through the first session with Takaaki Nakagami. Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati) joined the two Q1 graduates on the fourth row with the Australian rider qualifying in 10th place ahead of Vinales in 11th and Nakagami 12th. Franco Morbidelli was the unlucky rider who lines up in 13th place having been pushed out of the Q2 graduate spots by fellow rookie Nakagami at the end of Q1. Another rider feeling the Yamaha frustrations is Johann Zarco who wrestled his Tech 3 machine to 14th on the grid, suffering two scary moments pushing the limits on his final lap. With Aprilia’s Alex Espargaro slotting into 15th ahead of Red Bull KTM’s Bradley Smith, who looked to have been held up on his fastest qualifying lap by touring riders, Karel Abraham has also qualified ahead of Rossi with the Angel Nieto Ducati rider taking 17th in front of the nine-time world champion. Avintia Ducati stand-in rider Jordi Torres lines up 23rd for his MotoGP debut as replacement rider for the injured Tito Rabat, while Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro missed qualifying after being ruled out by a broken collarbone sustained in an FP3 crash at the Spanish track.