Brno MotoGP: Cal Crutchlow claims pole with record lap

The Briton prevailed in a frantic session that threw up plenty of surprises, not least in the performance of satellite Honda rider Alvaro Bautista.

The Spaniard moved onto provisional pole for Gresini with a lap record of his own after the opening set of runs.

His time would have been good enough for pole but for Tech 3's Crutchlow, who blazed to an emphatic 1m55.527s on his first run on fresh rubber.

There was still three minutes for the usual suspects to usurp him, and several times Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo threatened to do so, matching the Briton through the first sector.

They could not keep it up over the remainder of the lap however, leaving Crutchlow free to claim pole.

Bautista's best was good enough for second, while Marquez hung onto third ahead of works Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Lorenzo was fifth, while Bradley Smith scored another satellite upset as he beat works Yamaha counterpart Valentino Rossi to sixth.

Stefan Bradl, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden rounded out the top 10.

Andrea Iannone and Colin Edwards made it through into Q2 after an equally frenetic first shootout.

Iannone crashed on his out-lap, but with three minutes on the clock made it back to his garage, ran onto a spare bike and headed out with time for one flyer, which was enough to lift him into 11th.

Edwards meanwhile held off Aleix Espargaro to claim 12th, and give his Forward Racing squad only its second Q2 berth.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m55.527s
 2.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m55.754s  +0.227s
 3.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m55.863s  +0.336s
 4.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m55.868s  +0.341s
 5.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m55.949s  +0.422s
 6.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m56.014s  +0.487s
 7.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m56.186s  +0.659s
 8.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m56.477s  +0.950s
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m56.825s  +1.298s
10.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m56.979s  +1.452s
11.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m57.455s  +1.928s
12.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m58.392s  +2.865s
13.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         1m58.378s  +2.851s
14.  Michele Pirro     Pramac Ducati         1m58.812s  +3.285s
15.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         1m58.953s  +3.426s
16.  Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia           1m58.983s  +3.456s
17.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m59.057s  +3.530s
18.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m59.062s  +3.535s
19.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m59.128s  +3.601s
20.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        2m00.522s  +4.995s
21.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           2m00.584s  +5.057s
22.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m00.653s  +5.126s
23.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia       2m00.792s  +5.265s
24.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     2m00.827s  +5.300s
25.  Martin Bauer      Remus Aprilia         2m01.135s  +5.608s