Moto2: Binder the surprise package in Aragon qualifying

Brad Binder has delivered a surprise pole position for tomorrow’s Aragon Grand Prix at Motorland Aragon, with the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider taking his first pole in the middleweight class and demoting long-standing fastest man Marcel Schrotter in the final seconds of the race. The duo will be joined on the front row by another surprise performance in the shape of Jorge Navarro.

Despite a crash early in the session, Alex Marquez set an identical time to Navarro to line up fourth on the grid, with championship leader Francesco Bagnaia just 0.018 behind the Spaniard in fifth, bringing an end to a run of three straight pole positions for the Italian.

Compatriot Mattia Pasini lines up sixth after threatening the front row throughout, with Fabio Quartararo seventh. The Frenchman and Binder are the only non-Kalex riders inside the top 12.

Lorenzo Baldassarri earns his best grid slot since the Sachsenring in eighth, with fellow Italians Simone Corsi and Luca Marini rounding out the top ten. It was a difficult afternoon for title contender Miguel Oliveira, meanwhile, after the Portuguese rider could only manage P18 in qualifying.

He shared the same fate as Brit Sam Lowes, surprised to find their KTM machines reacting differently to changing track conditions at the end of the session and unable to make the most of soft tyres at the end of the session like Binder did.