Vinales on pole by half a second

Vinales built on the pace he had shown earlier in the weekend, breaking through the 1:28 mark on his first run to comfortably put him on provisional pole and head into the mid-session break.

Upon returning to the track, Vinales immediately made a small improvement to move further away from the field before finding even more time on his last two laps.

With neither Petronas Yamaha’s Quartararo nor Honda’s Marc Marquez making progress in their second heats, Vinales’ time of 1m28.492s put him comfortably on pole and ensured he continued his unbeaten record of the weekend.

Quartararo and Marquez will line up alongside Vinales on the front row, with Valentino Rossi making a late improvement on the second Yamaha to propel himself into fourth place.

Danilo Petrucci was Ducati’s top qualifier in fifth ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, while Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone qualified seventh and eighth for Aprilia on a strong day.

Pramac’s Jack Miller was ninth on home turf ahead of Andrea Dovizioso’s factory Ducati.

Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli was 11th while Alex Rins was classified 12th and last of the Q2 runners in a disappointing session for the Suzuki rider.

Quartararo dominates Q1

Quartararo set the initial pace in Q1, with Suzuki’s Joan Mir also securing a provisional spot in Q2 after the opening heats.

However, while Quartararo made it safely into the latter part of qualifying, Mir was edged out by Iannone’s Aprilia by 0.157s.

Johann Zarco qualified in his first qualifying session for LCR Honda a further two tenths down and will be in 13th, just ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia.

Factory Honda rider Jorge Lorenzo’s difficult campaign continued as he qualified 19th for the fourth consecutive race, just ahead of Hafizh Syahrin’s crashed Tech 3 KTM and Tito Rabat’s Avintia Ducati.

Syahrin’s team-mate Miguel Oliveira did not participate in qualifying after being ruled unfit with bruises sustained in a crash in the fourth practice session on Saturday.

Results: