Sam Lowes will start his bid for a fourth win and fifth podium at his beloved Motorland Aragon from pole position, with Elf Marc VDS Racing teammate Augusto Fernandez ready to fight through from the fourth row of the grid.

• Sunday’s 21-lap race at the 5km Motorland Aragon track will see Sam Lowes start from a landmark 16^th pole position, which equals the Moto2 pole record set by former Marc VDS Racing Team rider Tito Rabat.
• Round 13 of this year’s intermediate World Championship battle commences at 1220pm local time and gives the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team a golden opportunity to win for the fifth time in Motorland Aragon.

/// AUGUSTO FERNANDEZ: 12^th, 1’52.494

• A lap of 1’52.665 placed the Spaniard in 12^th position in FP3 to move him directly into the 15-minute Q2 session, which took place in hot afternoon temperatures of 27 degrees.
• The 23-year-old finished in 12^th position again in an incredibly close Q2 session, with his weekend best time of 1’52.494 putting him down on the fourth row of the grid but only 0.4s away from the top six.

“I’ll fight to get myself in contention at the front”

“This wasn’t the result in qualifying we were expecting at all and I’m disappointed. We did a race simulation in FP3 to understand the durability of the soft rear tyre option and we did a very good job, and I had a very good pace. In race conditions the bike still has some room for improvement and I just didn’t have a good feeling to make one fast lap in Q2. We lost some performance, and the lap is so long here that if you miss a little it counts for a lot at the end. It is going to be a difficult race from the fourth row, but I believe we have the pace to fight for the win. The problem is the grid position, but I will try to recover places as quickly as I can and then fight to get myself into contention at the front.”

/// SAM LOWES: 1^st, 1’51.778

• The Briton warmed up for a pole position attack in brilliant fashion this morning when he finished in a strong third place at the conclusion of FP3.
• Lowes then delivered another Motorland masterclass in Q2 and a perfectly executed lap of 1’51.778 secured the 30-year-old his third successive pole at the Spanish track by the comfortable margin of 0.279s.

“I’m confident we’ll be fighting for another victory”

“I’m really happy to have taken pole position today. It’s no secret I love this track and always enjoy riding here and it is nice to reward the team for all their hard work with a pole position. We improved the bike a lot from yesterday and in Q2 I was able to put together a nice lap. I feel good and now I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. I feel like we can do a good job from the pole position and I’m very confident we will be fighting for another victory here.”