Le Mans MotoGP: Marc Marquez takes second pole in four races

Riding his spare Honda after crashing at the chicane late in the pre-qualifying practice session, Marquez put in an 1m33.187s in Q2 to take provisional pole.

Jorge Lorenzo trailed that by 0.2 seconds at first, before closing to within 0.030s with his penultimate lap.

Marquez could not improve on his last run, and Lorenzo looked like he had a chance of deposing his Jerez sparring partner as he began a final lap 20s before the flag and set new benchmark early sectors.

But the lap faded in the second half and the Yamaha man had to settle for second.

Marquez's team-mate Dani Pedrosa was in the pole fight until crashing at the Dunlop chicane halfway through Q2.

Although he hurried back for his spare Honda, Pedrosa slipped back to sixth.

Yamaha's second works bike was also further down the order. Valentino Rossi's Friday optimism was dashed in qualifying as he struggled to eighth, 0.8s off the pace.

With Pedrosa and Rossi in trouble, it was Andrea Dovizioso who claimed the final front row spot in an impressive performance for Ducati.

The Italian beat team-mate Nicky Hayden by 0.6s and seven places.

Cal Crutchlow had a heavy crash at La Chappelle in fourth practice, causing a red flag that delayed the rest of practice and qualifying. Despite this, he came within 0.006s of beating Dovizioso to third.

Stefan Bradl's LCR Honda completed the top five.

Aspar Aprilia CRT duo Aleix Espargaro and Randy de Puniet beat Pramac Ducati prototype duo Andrea Iannone and Michele Pirro to the final Q2 spots.

De Puniet had upstaged his team-mate in Q1 with a late flying lap at home, but Espargaro got back on top in Q2 - although neither could claim any further prototype scalps.

Pos Rider             Team/Bike               Time       Gap
 1. Marc Marquez      Honda                   1m33.187s
 2. Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                  1m33.217s  + 0.030
 3. Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                  1m33.603s  + 0.416
 4. Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha           1m33.609s  + 0.422
 5. Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda               1m33.634s  + 0.447
 6. Dani Pedrosa      Honda                   1m33.639s  + 0.452
 7. Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           1m33.984s  + 0.797
 8. Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                  1m34.009s  + 0.822
 9. Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha           1m34.222s  + 1.035
10. Nicky Hayden      Ducati                  1m34.242s  + 1.055
11. Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia           1m34.754s  + 1.567
12. Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia           1m35.086s  + 1.899
13. Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati           1m35.062s  + 1.875
14. Michele Pirro     Ducati                  1m35.228s  + 2.041
15. Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki    1m35.714s  + 2.527
16. Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW          1m35.770s  + 2.583
17. Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki    1m36.221s  + 3.034
18. Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia         1m36.271s  + 3.084
19. Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki    1m36.330s  + 3.143
20. Michael Laverty   Paul Bird PBM-Aprilia   1m36.596s  + 3.409
21. Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda       1m36.714s  + 3.527
22. Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW          1m36.768s  + 3.581
23. Yonny Hernandez   Paul Bird Aprilia       1m36.961s  + 3.774
24. Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki    1m37.523s  + 4.336