MotoGP rookie Marc Marquez marmalised the opposition to take pole position for tomorrow's Indianapolis Grand Prix, setting a lap almost one second inside last year's circuit best and half a second quicker than reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo.
The Repsol Honda youngster was the only man to break the 1'38s barrier with a 1'37.958 while Factory Yamaha's Lorenzo could only muster a 1'38.471 with Dani Pedrosa 0.014s further back to complete the front row and push Britain's Cal Crutchlow into fourth.
The Monster Yamaha man had been sitting in second with his 1'38.502 but slid down the order when he had to scrap his last flying lap, shaking his head on the entry to turn one but was only 0.017s slower than Pedrosa.
It was disaster for Valentino Rossi. The nine-time world champion could only go quick enough for ninth place and is a massive 1.398s behind Marquez. The Doctor was only four-tenths quicker than his free practice four time, whereas Marquez made a leap of one second between sessions.
Alvaro Bautista put in a good lap to join Crutchlow on row two, which was completed by Nicky Hayden, who employed his caravan tactics and grabbed a tow from Marquez to set his 1'39.142 on lap six of eight.
Bradley Smith banged in his quickest lap of the weekend so far and went three-quarters of a second faster than fourth free practice for seventh while Stefan Bradl lost the front into turn one on his seventh lap and had to settle for eighth.
Andrea Dovizioso ended in tenth with Andrea Iannone 11th and Colin Edwards, who qualified for qualifying two in 12th place but the latter pair only completed two laps.
Aleix Espargaro didn't make it through to qualifying two after a final free practice crash saw him injure his left hand which made it painful to ride at pace in the first qualifying session.
