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Misano MotoGP: Yamaha's Maverick Vinales takes pole

Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales took pole for MotoGP's San Marino Grand Prix after topping an intense final qualifying session at Misano in which Marc Marquez crashed

Marquez had been the man to beat for much of the Misano weekend so far, and while he had to abort his first two hot laps in Q2, the Honda rider surged to the top of the times on his third attempt with a 1m32.636s.

Vinales, Yamaha's only factory rider this weekend in Valentino Rossi's absence, slotted into second, just 0.016s behind, the pair more than four tenths clear of the rest of the pack at the halfway point.

Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo managed to close that gap to just over a tenth when he went third at the start of his second run, but teammate and points leader Andrea Dovizioso knocked Marquez off the top spot when he posted a 1m32.616s with less than two minutes left on the clock.

Marquez looked set to retake provisional pole on his final lap, only to lose the front-end of his works RC213V at the fast Turn 13 right-hander and crash out, escaping injury.

Vinales, on the other hand, managed to eclipse Dovizioso's time by 0.173s on his last run with a 1m32.439s, enough to give him his fourth career MotoGP pole and his first since Mugello.

Marquez was forced to be content with a slot on the front row behind Dovizioso, the Italian impoving on his final run to finish 0.162s down on Vinales.

LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow heads the second row after narrowly beating Lorenzo to fourth, with Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco completing the top half-dozen.

Last year's Misano winner Dani Pedrosa could do no more than seventh, ahead of Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci and the leading Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro.

Completing the top 10 was Q1 pacesetter Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati), ahead of Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro and the second Aspar machine of Karel Abraham.

Folger and Miller get times scrapped

While it was Aspar duo Bautista and Abraham who progressed out of Q1, the two fastest times were set by Tech 3 Yamaha's Jonas Folger and Marc VDS Honda man Jack Miller.

Miller had grabbed the top spot off Bautista with a 1m33.548s, but this was deleted as the Australian exceeded track limits at Turn 11.

Moments later, Folger improved to a 1m33.287s to provisionally top the session, but he too was caught out by track limits, running wide at the final corner.

It means Miller and Folger will start 14th and 16th on the grid respectively for Sunday's race, with Avintia Ducati duo Hector Barbera and Loris Baz moving up to 13th and 15th places.

Pol Espargaro was KTM's top qualifier in 17th, despite a late crash at Turn 2, while Suzuki had to make do with 20th and 21st for Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone, who both lost laps to track limits violations.

Aprilia's Sam Lowes lines up 23rd and last after crashing early in the session at Turn 16.

Starting grid

Pos Rider Team Bike Time Gap
1 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1m32.439s -
2 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m32.601s 0.162s
3 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m32.636s 0.197s
4 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m32.768s 0.329s
5 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati Ducati 1m32.792s 0.353s
6 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m32.885s 0.446s
7 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 1m32.992s 0.553s
8 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m32.997s 0.558s
9 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 1m33.149s 0.710s
10 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m33.417s 0.978s
11 Michele Pirro Ducati Ducati 1m33.491s 1.052s
12 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m34.374s 1.935s
13 Hector Barbera Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m33.920s 1.481s
14 Jack Miller MVDS Honda Honda 1m33.933s 1.494s
15 Loris Baz Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m33.946s 1.507s
16 Jonas Folger Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m33.987s 1.548s
17 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 1m34.080s 1.641s
18 Tito Rabat MVDS Honda Honda 1m34.095s 1.656s
19 Scott Redding Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m34.132s 1.693s
20 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 1m34.138s 1.699s
21 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 1m34.148s 1.709s
22 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 1m34.507s 2.068s
23 Sam Lowes Aprilia Aprilia 1m35.659s 3.220s

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