Marc Marquez will start the 2017 MotoGP title decider from pole position despite a late crash, while main rival Andrea Dovizioso will start from a lowly ninth.
Marquez was in imperious form throughout third and fourth practice, and immediately set the benchmark pace in Q2 with a 1m30.424s, though only by 0.036 seconds over Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo.
Lorenzo’s charge was derailed shortly afterwards, however, when he suffered a fast front-end crash at Turn 13 while on a quick lap. The Spaniard was able to rejoin the session, but could not improve on his 1m30.460s.
Team-mate Dovizioso‘s opening half of Q2 was not much better, the Italian – who trails Marquez by 21 points in the standings and needs to win on Sunday to stand a chance at becoming champion – was 12th after his initial laps.
Keen to cement his eighth pole of the year, Marquez overstepped the mark on the first flying lap of his second run and crashed at Turn 4.
This could well have proven costly as Tech3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco fractionally set the best second sector of the session. However, the French rider dropped time over the rest of the lap and could only manage second.
Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone went third quickest to secure his first front row start since the season-opening round in Qatar.
Lorenzo heads the second row following his crash, while Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Ducati test rider Michele Pirro join the Spaniard.
Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi only just made it into Q2 having struggled throughout practice, but salvaged seventh on the factory M1 ahead of Q1 graduate and late faller Aleix Espargaro, while Dovizioso could do no better than ninth.
Alex Rins rounds out the top 10 on the second Suzuki ahead of Q1 pacesetter Pol Espargaro, though the KTM rider will have to start from pitlane on Sunday after his team fitted a 10th engine to his bike on Friday.
This will promote Jack Miller, who crashed in the closing minutes at Turn 13, up to 11th for his final race in Marc VDS colours.
Maverick Vinales has struggled all weekend with his factory M1, particularly into the corners. Missing the Q2 cut after a difficult third practice, Vinales only threatened the top two for a few seconds in Q1.
A 1m31.030s on his penultimate lap briefly lifted him up to second in the session, but he was immediately demoted by KTM‘s Espargaro, and had backed off on his final tour.
Tito Rabat will start his final race as a Marc VDS rider from 14th despite a late crash at the Nieto corner. LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow was another late faller, the Briton coming off quickly at Turn 10.
Crutchlow had been in second when he fell, but was shuffled back to 16th when the dust settled. Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci edged ahead of the Briton to 15th.
Sam Lowes‘ last qualifying for Aprilia ended in the gravel as he pushed to lift himself up from 24th. Tech3 stand-in Michael van der Mark completes the 25-rider field.
