MotoGP's championship top three will share the front row of the grid at the start of the San Marino Grand Prix, despite Marc Marquez crashing out of qualifying.
It was Yamaha's Maverick Viñales who took pole position, with the Spaniard recording the fastest lap on his penultimate run, which dethroned local favourite Andrea Dovizioso. The Ducati man had held the top spot in the closing minutes, but will start second.
Completing the top three is reigning champion Marc Marquez for Honda, despite crashing out of the session unharmed. The Spaniard was the man to beat in the early stages, although he was forced to abort his first two runs before nailing the third before dropping to third. However he looked to be on a quicker lap before falling.
Just two-tenths split the top three, whilst fourth to tenth was covered by a further seven-tenths in a closely fought session.
Cal Crutchlow snatched fourth despite a finger injury which he thought might rule him out for the weekend. The Britain qualified ahead of Jorge Lorenzo by only 0.024 seconds. Completing row two is rookie Johann Zarco for Yamaha Tech 3 after he bounced back from a practice crash on Saturday morning.
Dani Pedrosa is seventh – one place higher than his qualifying position last year, when he went on to win – with Friday’s fastest Danilo Petrucci taking eighth. Aleix Espargaro moved up slightly on his last lap, and completes the third row in P9.
The final Q2 spots went to Alvaro Bautista, wildcard Michele Pirro and Karel Abraham.
Jonas Folger and Jack Miller looked set to progress having both been quickest in Q1, but the pair had their times deleted after they were deemed to have exceeded track limits.
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