MotoGP Jerez: Crutchlow breaks lap record to claim fourth pole

Crutchlow was fastest by 0.259s in an otherwise ultra-close session, where positions second to ninth were separated by just 0.130s.

The LCR Honda rider took the lead with 1m37.752 after swapping to his second bike following his short first run, demoting factory Honda rider Marc Marquez from first place.

That time was not beaten for the rest of the session, but Crutchlow managed to improve again after the chequered flag fell and took his fourth MotoGP pole position with a 1m37.653s.

Pedrosa and Zarco jumped into second and third with their own late flyers and will share the front row of tomorrow's race with Crutchlow.

Jorge Lorenzo finished fourth, with Marquez ending up being shuffled down to fifth.

Despite going fastest in the first two sectors of the track on three occasions, Marquez failed to improve his best lap every time.

Suzuki duo Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone ended up 0.007s and 0.010s behind Marquez in sixth and seventh.

The GP18s riders, Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) and Danilo Petrucci (Pramac) took eighth and ninth, despite both being less than half a second off the pace.

It was a disappointing qualifying for the Yamaha factory pair Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, as they ended up 10th and 11th, ahead of Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller.

Dovizioso and Vinales, the two biggest names taking part in Q1, successfully advanced to the second part of qualifying after missing out on an automatic spot in FP3.

The factory Ducati rider set a time of 1m38.402s on the only flyer of his first run, something the rest of the field couldn't match before the mid-session changes.

Dovizioso was the first to rejoin the track for his second run, and again only did one lap, with his 1m38.074s enough to secure first place.

Tito Rabat was second, 0.002s ahead of Vinales, after the first runs, but the latter edged by three tenths ahead on his second effort.

Rabat then crashed at Turn 1 shortly after his flyer and Aleix Espargaro took his place as Vinales' main challenger for the Q2 spot.

But a last-second effort from the Aprilia rider fell 0.040s short and he will start 13th.

Behind Espargaro, Honda rookies Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) and Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS) will start 14th and 15th with Pol Espargaro leading KTM's efforts in 16th.

Rabat ended up in 17th.

Starting grid

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Gap
1	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	1m37.653s
2	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	0.259s
3	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	0.303s
4	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	Ducati	0.316s
5	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	0.324s
6	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	0.331s
7	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	Suzuki	0.334s
8	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	0.376s
9	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	0.433s
10	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	0.614s
11	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	0.628s
12	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	0.869s
13	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	0.736s
14	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	0.828s
15	Franco Morbidelli	MVDS Honda	Honda	0.891s
16	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	0.945s
17	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	0.957s
18	Thomas Luthi	MVDS Honda	Honda	1.099s
19	Mika Kallio	KTM	KTM	1.106s
20	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1.185s
21	Bradley Smith	KTM	KTM	1.308s
22	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1.482s
23	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1.493s
24	Xavier Simeon	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	2.055s
25	Scott Redding	Aprilia	Aprilia	2.265s