Image: Supplied.

Ducati Team’s Jorge Lorenzo secured his first pole position since Valencia 2016 at the Monster Energy Grand Prix of Catalunya in a spectacular Q2 session, on top in red for the first time.

But Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) is within a whisker in second despite an incident-packed Saturday – and another spectacular save – with Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) grabbing his first front row start of the season in third.

Under blistering Barcelona skies, it was a battle of the Spaniards for pole position on home soil. Lorenzo was the first man to set a time, before Marquez crossed the line to set the fastest lap of the weekend with a magnificent 1m38.886s.

Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) fired in a 1m39.392s to put himself between the two after the first run.
Lorenzo then blasted out the box to launch himself to the top of the time-sheets, with just 0.066s the difference between him and future teammate Marquez.

Dovizioso, meanwhile, threatened to take pole on his final run and the Italian was up in the first half of the lap before losing time in sector three. Nonetheless, the Italian launches from P3 and looks confident ahead of Sunday, as do the two men ahead of him.

Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) will start fourth and top Yamaha at his home GP, with FP4’s quickest man Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was just 0.003s behind Vinales and the Italian starts from the second row for a third-consecutive race.

Alma Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci was able to get himself onto the outside of row two, a good session for the Ducati rider, who starts sixth and top Independent Team rider. Rossi, who was second after the first runs, made a mistake on his first attempt on the second row and was able to improve but was left unsatisfied with his position.

The Doctor will start seventh but thinks he has better pace on race day. The number 46 is just ahead of Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), who took P8 after a difficult weekend. Rounding out the third row was Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) after he was able to earn an automatic Q2 spot.

Behind Rabat on the grid is Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol), who had a difficult end to the session as he crashed at the newly modified turn 13 while on a personal best lap, the British rider will start 10th. Dani Pedrosa’s (Repsol Honda Team) quiet weekend continued in qualifying, the Spaniard will line up in 11th for his home race.

Q1 graduate Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) secured a personal best of 12th on the grid, one position ahead of Australia’s Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) as he improved to P13 on Saturday.

Fabio Quartararo (HRD – Speed Up Racing) will start the Moto2 race from pole position, setting a blistering 1m43.474s to beat 2017 race winner Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) and Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt Intact GP) to secure his first ever intermediate class pole.

It is Enea Bastianini (Leopard Racing) who will start the Moto3 race from pole position as he took top spot in qualifying for the first time since Aragon 2016. Despite a second crash of the weekend, Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Moto3) starts second, with Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Squadra Corse) third.

Detailed results