Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli snatched pole position for tomorrow’s Valencia MotoGP out from under the nose of Australian Jack Miller as Joan Mir failed to punish team-mate Alex Rins for not getting out of qualifying one as he slumped to 12th place.
Morbidelli’s final lap was 0.096s quicker than the Pramac Ducati rider with Taka Nakagami taking his third consecutive front-row start for LCR Honda.
The three championship contenders are mired outside the top ten with Fabio Quartararo in 11th, Mir 12th and Rins 14th after coming fourth in qualifying one.
Johann Zarco was a front-row contender right until the death, setting a 1'30.520 which was enough for third until Nakagami pushed him back to the front of the second row.
KTM's Pol Espargaro was also right in the front-row fight but his 1'30.553 ended up being good enough for the middle of row two.
Monster Yamah's Maverick Vinales completes row two with a 1'30.645 while team-mate Valentino Rossi is in 16th and never looked like making it out of Q2.
Aleix Espargaro put in a blinder to keep the Aprilia at the sharp end, finding a 1'30.657 for seventh with Pecco Bagnaia right behind him.
Brad Binder couldn't find any more pace than the lap that got him out of qualifying one and he starts from the head of row three, right next to Miguel Oliveira.
Quartararo and Mir are next to each other on row four which should make for an interesting turn one, while Alex Rins is one row back next to Britain's Cal Crutchlow.
Danilo Petrucci is the leading works Ducati in 15th with Andrea Dovizioso qualifying in 17th after Rossi.
Alex Marquez completed his hat-trick of crashes when his RC213V spat him up in the air during qualifying one and he landed right on his arse.
