Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/576901
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 2015 Sport 55 FOOTBALL MOTOGP Marquez destroys his own record on way to pole Marc Marquez obliterated his own record on the way to claiming his 7th pole of the season ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Iannone. REPSOL Honda's Marquez set the fastest ever lap by a MotoGP™ bike around the 5km MotorLand Aragon circuit as he claimed his 29th pre- mier class pole position in a thrill- ing Q2 session. The Spaniard made the most of ideal conditions (Track temp. 38˚C) at the Gran Premio Mo- vistar de Aragón to set a 1'46.635 on his first run to completely annihilate his own 2014 Pole Record (1'47.187) in the process by over half a sec- ond. The reigning MotoGP™ World Champion utilised a two-stop strat- egy and appeared to be going even quicker on his third run before he lost the front at turn 2, walking away unhurt. Movistar Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, who had earlier topped FP3 after dominating on Friday, was the only rider to get within 0.5s of Marquez. Lorenzo finished 0.108s off the pace of Marquez as he attempts to close the 23-point gap in the standings to his teammate Valentino Rossi. Lorenzo was the only other rider to break the 1'47 barrier as he claimed his 11th front row start of the season and 6th in a row. Ducati Team's An- drea Iannone pulled off the surprise of the day to complete the front row despite riding through the pain bar- rier. The Italian re-dislocated his left shoulder in a training accident after Misano but managed to set a time good enough to secure his fourth front row start of the season and first since Mugello. Incredibly though, he was over half a second off the pace off Marquez as 0.543s separated the top three riders. Monster Yamaha Tech 3's Pol Espargaro (+0.699s) put in a sensa- tional lap to start from the front of the second row in fourth as the lead- ing Satellite rider. This equalled the Spaniards best qualifying perform- ance of the season at Jerez. Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa (+0.722s) had topped the earlier FP4 session but will start Sunday's race from fifth. Pedrosa had found himself on the provisional front row after the first run but could only improve by three-hundredths of a second on his second run and will have to start from the middle of the second row. Movistar Yamaha's championship leader Rossi (+0.857s) was staring down the barrel of a third row start before he managed to respond on his final lap to set a time good enough for sixth. The nine-time World Champion found himself 0.749s off the pace off his closest rival Lorenzo in what was his worst qualifying performance since Indianapolis. Team Suzuki Ecstar's Aleix Es- pargaro made use of the minor en- gine upgrade brought by his team to Aragon to set the seventh fastest time in his best qualifying perform- ance since the Sachsenring. LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow will start from the middle of the third row as he lost out to Espargaro by just 0.001s. The British rider im- proved from 13th on the combined timesheets on Friday to finish in tenth ahead of Danilo Petrucci on the Octo Pramac Racing Ducati. Petrucci earlier had made it through from Q1 with his teammate Yonny Hernandez at the expense of And- rea Dovizioso on the Factory Ducati who will be forced to start from 13th. Monster Yamaha Tech 3's Brad- ley Smith recovered from an earlier crash at turn 5 in FP3 to complete the top ten, while Hernandez and the second Suzuki GSX-RR of Mav- erick Viñales round out the fourth row. EG 0,0 Marc VDS's Scott Redding will start form 14th, while Eugene Laverty (Aspar MotoGP Team) is the leading Open class rider in 15th in his best qualifying performance since Argentina. His teammate Nicky Hayden qualified in 15th de- spite riding with a broken thumb while Australian Jack Miller will start from the middle of row seven in 20th. Starting Grid -2015 Aragónian MotoGP Grand Prix Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M. Marquez Repsol Honda 01:46.635 7 2. J. Lorenzo Yamaha 01:46.743 8 3. A. Iannone Ducati 01:47.178 6 4. P. Espargaro Tech 3 01:47.334 7 5. D. Pedrosa Repsol Honda 01:47.357 8 6. V. Rossi Yamaha 01:47.492 7 7. A. Espargaro Suzuki 01:47.573 7 8. C. Crutchlow LCR 01:47.574 6 9. D. Petrucci Pramac 01:47.775 6 10. B. Smith Tech 3 01:47.830 8 11. Y. Hernandez Pramac 01:48.556 6 12. M. Vinales Suzuki 01:48.648 7 Harry Kane gets first of season as Spurs rout Manchester City HARRY Kane and Tottenham enjoyed an afternoon to remem- ber against Manchester City, bringing a comprehensive end to their recent nightmarish run against the stuttering table top- pers. Manuel Pellegrini's side ar- rived in north London looking for a club-record sixth succes- sive away league win and the continuance of their exceptional recent run against Spurs. City have won the teams' last four meetings, scoring 16 goals in the process - a nasty streak Tottenham halted with an im- pressive 4-1 comeback victory in which Kane ended a 748-minute goal drought. The fans' favourite's recent drop in form and confidence has been as stark as it has been well-documented, with the relief inside White Hart Lane palpable as he turned home from close range to help wrap up the three points. Things had not started so well for Mauricio Pochettino's side as Kevin de Bruyne continued his impressive return to English football by slotting home the opener midway through the first half. However, the game turned on a controversial leveller as Eric Dier netted on the stroke of half- time after a move started by the clearly offside Kyle Walker - a goal added to shortly after the break by Toby Alderweireld's header. Kane's quick reactions after a Christian Eriksen free-kick came off the crossbar added to the feel-good factor, taken to new heights as Erik Lamela cool- ly turned home a fourth. It was an impressive response to the Capital One Cup derby de- feat to Arsenal, while this result left City licking their wounds as they suffered back-to-back Pre- mier League losses. Manchester United replaced Manchester City at the Barclays Premier League summit on a day of contrasting fortunes for the rivals. United had a much more straightforward afternoon against Sunderland at Old Traf- ford, leapfrogging City by a point with a 3-0 win. The decisive goals came either side of the half-time whistle, Memphis Depay putting his side ahead at the end of the first peri- od and Wayne Rooney bundling home from close range shortly after the restart. England captain Rooney had gone 1,000 Premier League min- utes without a goal, but he now sits level third alongside Denis Law on United's all-time list. Juan Mata later added the gloss. Under-pressure Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers had Daniel Sturridge to thank for a much- needed 3-2 win over Aston Villa at Anfield. James Milner eased the nerves with a second-minute opener be- fore Sturridge's fine volley made it 2-0 in his second start after a lengthy injury lay-off. Sturridge grabbed a second in the 67th minute, with Villa's Rudy Gestede scoring two of his own either side of that to make Rodgers sweat over the points. Arsenal ended Leicester's un- beaten start to the campaign to go third with a 5-2 win, Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez opening his account for the season with a hat-trick. Claudio Ranieri's Foxes took the lead at the King Power Sta- dium through Jamie Vardy's 13th-minute effort, only for Theo Walcott to level within five minutes. Sanchez took centre-stage with goals in 33rd, 58th and 81st min- utes before the in-form Vardy and substitute Olivier Giroud netted late on. Stoke picked up a first win of the season at home to Bourne- mouth, Mame Biram Diouf set- tling a 2-1 victory in the 83rd minute after goals from Dan Gosling and Jon Walters had cancelled each other out. Cherries striker Callum Wilson suffered a nasty first-half injury. Southampton saw off visiting Swansea 3-1, as Virgil van Dijk, Dusan Tadic and Sadio Mane es- tablished a healthy advantage in little more than an hour. Gylfi Sigurdsson pulled one back from the penalty spot, Swans' first goal in September. At the Boleyn Ground, Cheikhou Kouyate stole a 2-2 draw for West Ham in the dying seconds against Norwich. Nathan Redmond thought he had won it for the Canaries seven minutes from time after strikes from Robbie Brady and Diafra Sakho. Harry Kane ended his goal drought to make it 3-1 to Spurs