Enea Bastianini stormed to his first Moto3 pole since Misano 2017 at Catalunya, as Jorge Martin salvaged second after an early crash.
Martin brushed off a heavy fall in final practice on Saturday morning to set the early pace in qualifying, the Gresini rider going top with a 1:49.552s, deposing Besta Capital rider Jaume Masia by half a second.
The sister Gresini Honda of Fabio Di Giannantonio soon after signalled the start of a tough nightmare period in the session for the team, as a he crashed on his out-lap at Turn 4.
10 minutes later, Martin fell for a second time on Saturday after tucking the front end under braking for Turn 10 and collecting Nieto rider Albert Arenas in the process.
Arenas was able to get going again, but Martin was forced to return to pitlane without his bike, with both sides of the Gresini garage facing a race against time to fix both of their riders' stricken machines.
Leopard's Bastianini took over from Martin at the top of the standing a few moments prior to the Spaniard's crash with a 1:48.891s, which he improved to a 1:48.806s to go over two and a half tenths clear of the field.
Martin was shuffled to third at the time of his crash, but a period of quiet not long after his crash meant he lost very few positions when he rejoined the session with 16 minutes remaining.
The Gresini rider managed to lift himself up to second on his second flying lap with a 1:48.913s, while Di Giannantonio put his Honda 22nd after getting back out on track with 10 minutes remaining.
Martin put Bastianini's early effort under threat on his final attempts, but could do nothing to improve on second, while Bastianini held on for his ninth career pole.
Tatsuzki Suzuki took back-to-back front row starts in third, while SIC58 team-mate Niccolo Antonelli was forced to withdraw from the remainder of the weekend after dislocating his left shoulder in an FP3 tumble.
Ayumu Sasaki heads up row two from Aron Canet and Kaito Toba, who held onto sixth despite a crash at Turn 7 with 15 minutes remaining.
John McPhee took his best qualifying result since his Austin front row start in seventh, while Gabriel Rodrigo – who crashed at the end of the session – championship leader Marco Bezzecchi and Lorenzo Dalla Porta completed the top 10.
Di Giannantonio recovered to 13th at the chequered flag, while there were further crashes for Arenas and wildcard Vincent Perez at the end, with the former colliding with Perez in an incident similar to the one he was involved in with Martin,
A crash for Nicolo Bulega with 13 minutes remaining hindered his strong charge, though he salvaged 12th.
