Barcelona MotoGP: Lorenzo takes maiden Ducati pole

Jorge Lorenzo claimed his first MotoGP pole position for Ducati in qualifying for the Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Lorenzo, who had recorded his first win with Ducati last time out at Mugello, beat the resurgent Marc Marquez by 0.066s late on in the Q2 decider.

Marquez had been consigned to his second-ever Q1 appearance in MotoGP after a late crash in third practice, but made short work of advancing to the pole shoot-out.

He ended his first run in the opening segment with a comfortable lead, and gradually improved his time with several successive laps late on, never threatened by any of the other Q1 riders.

As Q2 began, Lorenzo took the initial lead, only for Marquez to fire in a 1m38.886s - the best lap of the weekend at that point, completed in tow behind Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco - which left the reigning champion almost four tenths clear after the opening runs.

Dovizioso improved to within 0.037s of pole as the final runs were completed, only for Marquez to respond immediately, recording a 1m38.746s.

But Lorenzo, who appeared enraged after coming into the pits for his bike swap, was even faster, finding time on Marquez in the final sector and securing pole position with a 1m38.680s.

Lorenzo still had time for a final flying lap, but did not make gains, which left him vulnerable to last-gasp efforts from Dovizioso and Marquez.

Dovizioso had been up on Lorenzo two sectors in after the chequered flag was shown, but came upon Yamaha's Maverick Vinales and couldn't improve.

The same fate befell Marquez, who was only a tenth short heading into the final sector before coming up on Pramac's Danilo Petrucci.

With Marquez and Dovizioso completing the front row, Vinales was the top Yamaha in fourth, just 0.003s clear of Suzuki's Andrea Iannone - whose works team-mate Alex Rins will start only 15th.

Petrucci, who stopped alongside Marquez after the chequered flag to apologise, made up the second row, ahead of Valentino Rossi, who was forced to roll out of his final effort after a huge moment.

Zarco took eighth, with Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat ninth and Cal Crutchlow only 10th, his qualifying compromised by a late crash at the high-speed Turn 13 right-hander.

Marquez's Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa was 11th, ahead of LCR Honda rookie Takaaki Nakagami - the Japanese rider making his first Q2 appearance after denying Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller in the fight for second in Q1.

Qualifying result

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	Ducati	1m38.680s	-
2	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m38.746s	0.066s
3	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m38.923s	0.243s
4	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m39.145s	0.465s
5	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m39.148s	0.468s
6	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m39.178s	0.498s
7	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m39.266s	0.586s
8	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m39.331s	0.651s
9	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m39.504s	0.824s
10	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	1m39.556s	0.876s
11	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	1m39.695s	1.015s
12	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	1m39.888s	1.208s
13	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m39.732s	1.052s
14	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m39.879s	1.199s
15	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m39.918s	1.238s
16	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m40.010s	1.330s
17	Bradley Smith	KTM	KTM	1m40.019s	1.339s
18	Franco Morbidelli	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m40.058s	1.378s
19	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	1m40.178s	1.498s
20	Scott Redding	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m40.300s	1.620s
21	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m40.449s	1.769s
22	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m40.524s	1.844s
23	Mika Kallio	KTM	KTM	1m40.572s	1.892s
24	Thomas Luthi	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m40.590s	1.910s
25	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m40.834s	2.154s
26	Xavier Simeon	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m41.369s	2.689s