Francesco Bagnaia stunned the field by taking pole position for the Czech MotoGP race at Brno after team-mate Marc Marquez crashed out.
The Italian progressed through Q1 to seal his first pole of the season after running out of sync with the rest of the field.
Marc Marquez continued to find his rhythm after topping all three practice sessions and was 0.093s ahead of Fabio Quartararo after the field set their first flying laps.
Francesco Bagnaia had pulled out of his first run and was out of sync with the rest of the field as the Italian went fastest by two tenths.
The double World Champion was hampered by Alex Marquez on his second run as the rest of the grid filtered back onto the circuit.
Marco Bezzecchi crashed out on his last attempt at pole, which brought out the yellow flag to prevent any representative lap times being set.
Going onto the final lap, the elder Marquez led team-mate Bagnaia over the line as the younger Marquez trailed behind the pair.
Bagnaia ran wide, which affected the progress of the Gresini rider behind, but it was his team-mate who was setting the red sectors around the race track.
As the Spanish rider reached the final corner, he lost the front and crashed, putting him out of contention for the pole position and handing Bagnaia his first of the campaign.
Marquez took second, but was under investigation for crashing under yellow flags on his final attempt.
Quartararo completed the front row in third after another strong qualifying display from the Frenchman.
Despite his earlier crash, Bezzecchi ended the session in fourth, ahead of Joan Mir who qualified in a season’s best fifth place.
Raul Fernandez was one of the few riders not to be affected by the yellow flag from Bezzecchi’s crash and took sixth, while Pedro Acosta was affected by the scuffle between Bagnaia and Marquez in seventh.
The younger Marquez took the flag in eighth ahead of Johann Zarco, who crashed at the end of the session in ninth.
Jack Miller headed the fourth row of the grid after qualifying 10th, as Enea Bastianini sealed 11th after recovering from appendicitis.
Reigning World Champion Jorge Martin returned to action and qualified in 12th for Aprilia.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was disappointed to miss out on a Q2 appearance as he qualified in 13th.
Pol Espargaro took 14th as he remained a stand-in rider for the injured Maverick Vinales.
Alex Rins was unable to use his knowledge from testing at the Brno track to advance in the qualifying session as he took the flag in 15th.
Luca Marini continued to recover from his injuries as he struggled in 16th, ahead of Miguel Oliveira in 17th.
Rookie Fermin Aldeguer had never visited the Brno circuit and qualified 18th, while 2020 Czech GP winner Brad Binder could only manage 19th.
Takaaki Nakagami acted as a stand-in rider for Somkiat Chantra and qualified in 20th ahead of Ai Ogura, who was struggling after a heavy crash in Friday practice.
Yamaha wildcard Augusto Fernandez completed the standings in 21st.
inkgaw