Austin MotoGP: Marc Marquez blasts to maiden pole at Austin

Even a heavy crash in morning practice failed to slow the Moto2 champion, who had looked unstoppable at the Texas track ever since first testing there in March.

Marquez reeled off three ever-faster laps at the start of final qualifying, eventually getting down to a 2m03.021s.

At that stage he was nearly a second clear of the pack.

It took a huge late effort from his team-mate Dani Pedrosa to get the gap down to 0.254 seconds, the elder works Honda rider finding 0.7s on his final dash.

Jorge Lorenzo had to settle for third on the fastest Yamaha. He was a full 1.3s quicker than team-mate Valentino Rossi, who could only manage eighth.

Cal Crutchlow was the best of those who had not tested at Austin as he put the Tech 3 Yamaha fourth, beating LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl - the only non-factory rider with experience of the venue.

Andrea Dovizioso was Ducati's lead runner again, claming the final second row spot.

Aleix Espargaro again produced an extraordinary performance on Aspar's CRT bike.

He made it through the first part of qualifying at prototype rider Andrea Iannone's expense, then took ninth on the final grid - ahead of Nicky Hayden, Bradley Smith and Ben Spies.

Until the last moments of Q1 it looked like it would be Smith, not Iannone, who missed the cut, but a big improvement from the young Briton got him through.

Karel Abraham will miss Sunday's race having clashed with Bryan Staring early in Q1. The Czech rider sustained a fractured collarbone.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 2m03.021s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 2m03.275s  + 0.254s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                2m04.100s  + 1.079s
 4.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m04.267s  + 1.246s
 5.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             2m04.445s  + 1.424s
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                2m04.873s  + 1.852s
 7.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         2m04.942s  + 1.921s
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                2m05.380s  + 2.359s
 9.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         2m05.389s  + 2.368s
10.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                2m05.568s  + 2.547s
11.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m06.740s  + 3.719s
12.  Ben Spies         Pramac Ducati         2m07.044s  + 4.023s
13.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         2m06.872s  Q1
14.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         2m07.129s  Q1
15.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m07.717s  Q1
16.  Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia           2m07.738s  Q1
17.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           2m08.259s  Q1
18.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  2m08.475s  Q1
19.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  2m08.792s  Q1
20.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        2m08.825s  Q1
21.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m09.062s  Q1
22.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     2m10.098s  Q1
23.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        2m10.507s  Q1
24.  Blake Young       Attack APR-Kawasaki   2m10.606s  Q1
25.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia       2m23.317s  Q1