Silverstone MotoGP: Marc Marquez denies Jorge Lorenzo pole
Marc Marquez defeated Jorge Lorenzo to secure pole position in a scintillating MotoGP qualifying session at Silverstone
Cal Crutchlow meanwhile bounced back from his brace of Saturday morning crashes to secure a front-row start for his home race, ahead of Dani Pedrosa, Stefan Bradl and Valentino Rossi.
Yamaha rider Lorenzo sparked off an unbelievable fight with Marquez when he fired in a 2m01.497s on his first lap of the shootout, decimating Casey Stoner's 2011 lap record.
Marquez though responded instantly and lowered the benchmark further, before Lorenzo reclaimed the initiative with a 2m01.217s on the final lap of his first run.
After pitting for fresh rubber the duo's spectacular head-to-head resumed, with Lorenzo instantly breaking into the 2m00s bracket.
Still Marquez had an answer, and his own first flyer - complete with several lurid moments - was a 2m00.691s, some 0.128 seconds faster than Lorenzo, and nearly 1.5s than the previous lap record.
Honda's Spaniard, chasing a fifth straight win at Silverstone, will therefore start from pole for the fifth time this year.
CRUTCHLOW MAKES IT ONTO FRONT ROW AT HOME
Crutchlow had no answer to the pace of the front two, but booked third for Tech 3 courtesy of a late 2m01.425s.
LCR's Bradl meanwhile edged out factory counterpart Pedrosa to fourth, with Rossi a further four tenths of a second down the road in sixth.
He was almost shunted down to seventh by Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso, but the Italian missed out on a second row start by just 0.014s.
Instead he shared the third row with Gresini's Alvaro Bautista and team-mate Nicky Hayden.
Tech 3's Bradley Smith will start from 10th, and Colin Edwards from 11th, after Aleix Espargaro was unable to compete in Q2 following a nasty highside in practice four that resulted in a compound fracture of his little finger.
Edwards was only just able to squeeze through into Q2, withstanding a late charge from Espargaro's Aspar stable-mate Randy de Puniet, who missed out by just 0.006s.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 1. Marc Marquez Honda 2m00.691s 2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 2m00.819s +0.128s 3. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 2m01.425s +0.734s 4. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 2m01.558s +0.867s 5. Dani Pedrosa Honda 2m01.624s +0.933s 6. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2m02.109s +1.418s 7. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2m02.123s +1.432s 8. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 2m02.252s +1.561s 9. Nicky Hayden Ducati 2m02.289s +1.598s 10. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 2m02.409s +1.718s 11. Colin Edwards Forward FTR-Kawasaki 2m04.032s +3.341s 12. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 13. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 2m04.114s Q1 14. Hector Barbera Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m04.236s Q1 15. Michele Pirro Pramac Ducati 2m04.680s Q1 16. Andrea Iannone Pramac Ducati 2m04.692s Q1 17. Yonny Hernandez PBM Aprilia 2m04.749s Q1 18. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Suter-BMW 2m04.798s Q1 19. Michael Laverty PBM-Aprilia 2m04.936s Q1 20. Claudio Corti Forward FTR-Kawasaki 2m05.356s Q1 21. Hiroshi Aoyama Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m05.622s Q1 22. Lukas Pesek Ioda-Suter-BMW 2m07.261s Q1 23. Bryan Staring Gresini FTR-Honda 2m07.300s Q1
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