Record pole positions for López in Moto2 and Almansa in Moto3

· López strikes. Antonio López (Kalex) will start tomorrow’s Moto2™ race at the Aragon Grand Prix, the 13th round of the MotoGP™ World Championship, from pole position. The Spanish rider set the fastest time in qualifying and established a new MotorLand Aragón lap record with a time of 1’49.405, beating last year’s record by 535 thousandths of a second by Diogo Moreira and shaving almost two tenths off the time set by Manuel Gonzalez in Saturday morning’s FP2. All riders opting for the Pirelli SCX supersoft range rear tyre, López secured pole position using the SC1 soft range front, taking the fastest time from Izan Guevara (Boscoscuro) on his final attempt. Guevara, together with Barry Baltus (Kalex), had chosen the new E1089 development specification. Daniel Holgado (Kalex) completed the front row.

·Tight Moto3™ qualifying. David Almansa claimed pole position in Moto3™, his fifth of the season, with the Spanish rider also setting a new lap record with a time of 1’56.347, beating the previous record by 14 thousandths of a second by José Antonio Rueda. Almansa will line up on the front row tomorrow alongside Argentina’s Marco Morelli (KTM) and Championship leader Máximo Quiles (KTM), following an extremely close qualifying session in which just 43 thousandths of a second separated the top three. Almansa and Morelli used Pirelli SC1 soft range tyres at both ends, while Quiles opted for medium SC2 tyres at both ends

A positive debut for the new Moto2™ front tyre
 
“MotorLand Aragón is a particularly demanding circuit for tyres, where tyres need to deliver balanced performance throughout every phase of the lap. In the opening sessions on Friday, the track surface was quite dirty, but as the circuit evolved, performance improved rapidly: the previous Moto2™ lap record was already broken in Practice and then lowered further in the following sessions, with Alonso López’s pole position improving last year’s record by more than half a second. The SCX supersoft rear is softer than the E0125 soft development solution – now promoted to the SC0 range – which was the unanimous choice last year. This helped riders lower their lap times quickly. The new E1089 soft development front tyre, which features the same structure as the SC1 range tyre but a different compound, also provided positive feedback, as demonstrated by Izan Guevara’s second-place finish in qualifying, with the Spanish rider also comfortably beating the previous lap record. For tomorrow’s race, we expect around one third of the riders on the grid to choose this new solution, which has been particularly appreciated for its tendency to offer improved stability under braking as the race progresses, providing          an interesting direct comparison with those who will instead opt for the SC1 range tyre.
In Moto3™, where a new lap record was set in the closing stages of qualifying, the medium SC2 compound is proving to be the most competitive option from a race perspective, both at the front and rear. Their combination of stability, durability and consistent performance makes them the most complete solution to emerge so far, which is why we expect the vast majority of riders to choose this option.”