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Barcelona MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa on pole as Marc Marquez crashes

Dani Pedrosa put an end to Honda team-mate Marc Marquez's run of MotoGP pole positions as he secured the top spot for the Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona

Marquez, who had been on pole for the last six races, crashed in the final minutes of qualifying and will start from third.

Pedrosa secured his first pole of the year with a time of 1m40.985s, beating Yamaha rival Jorge Lorenzo by 0.115 seconds.

LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl will start from fourth ahead of Valentino Rossi's Yamaha.

Aleix Espargaro qualified in sixth and was the top Open rider once again. Andrea Dovizioso, Bradley Smith, Yonny Hernandez and Pol Espargaro completed the top 10.

Alvaro Bautista and Andrea Iannone reached Q2 from Q1 having missed the top-10 cut with their practice times. The Spaniard's grid-deciding session, however, was hampered by a crash and he will start from 12th.

Marquez threw down the gauntlet early on, moving to P1 with his first flying lap, over two tenths ahead of Pedrosa and over three ahead of Lorenzo.

The championship leader switched bikes for his second attempt, but saw team-mate Pedrosa steal first place with four minutes to go, as Marquez decided to abort his second run and return to the pits to switch to his #1 bike for his final run.

Lorenzo then took second place two minutes from the end, relegating Marquez to third.

As the Honda rider prepared for his final flyer, he lost control of his bike and crashed at Turn 1. He was uninjured but could not return to the track.

Ducati's Cal Crutchlow endured a disappointing day and was unable to make it into Q2, the Briton ending up in 13th position on the grid ahead of Gresini's Scott Redding and Michele Pirro on the third Ducati.

American Nicky Hayden qualified in 16th position ahead of his return to racing action after missing the previous race due to injury.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m40.985s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m41.100s  +0.115s
 3.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m41.135s  +0.150s
 4.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m41.220s  +0.235s
 5.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m41.290s  +0.305s
 6.  Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha        1m41.308s  +0.323s
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m41.337s  +0.352s
 8.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m41.491s  +0.506s
 9.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         1m41.671s  +0.686s
10.  Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m41.677s  +0.692s
11.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m41.751s  +0.766s
12.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m42.024s  +1.039s
13.  Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                1m42.578s  Q1
14.  Scott Redding     Gresini Honda         1m42.730s  Q1
15.  Michele Pirro     Ducati                1m42.955s  Q1
16.  Nicky Hayden      Aspar Honda           1m43.043s  Q1
17.  Colin Edwards     Forward Yamaha        1m43.226s  Q1
18.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda         1m43.360s  Q1
19.  Broc Parkes       PBM Aprilia           1m43.530s  Q1
20.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda           1m43.564s  Q1
21.  Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia           1m43.737s  Q1
22.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m44.115s  Q1
23.  Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m45.012s  Q1
24.  Michel Fabrizio   Ioda Aprilia          1m46.214s  Q1

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