Vinales storms through Q1 to pole position in Valencia

Full MotoGP qualifying results from Valencia

Maverick Vinales has claimed his first MotoGP pole position since Aragon last year progressing through Q1 as Marc Marquez goes from a dislocated shoulder to a gutsy fifth place in a frantic qualifying.

Both Movistar Yamaha riders Vinales and Valentino Rossi were forced into Q1 after failing to reach the top ten during the wet practice sessions but after nipping through the first qualifying session behind leader Andrea Iannone, Vinales’ produced a blitzing pace to take pole position with a 1m 31.312s.

Vinales ended up just edging Alex Rins on the Suzuki by 0.068s for pole position for the 2018 finale with Andrea Dovizioso slotting on to the front row in third 0.012s behind Rins.

Early pace-setter Danilo Petrucci could only manage the front of the second row for Pramac Ducati, but puts himself in a key position to take the MotoGP Independents honour, as he pushed Marquez into fifth place.

Having demonstrated almost untouchable practice pace in FP4, Marquez wrecked his own qualifying chances by crashing at Turn 4 on his opening fast lap and sustained a suspected dislocated left shoulder.

While clearly in agony having relocated his left shoulder, and with MotoGP doctors watching on, Marquez returned to qualifying 10 minutes after his crash to take the middle of the second row.

It somewhat overshadowed an impressive performance from Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro to claim the team’s best qualifying performance with sixth place ahead of Iannone in seventh and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in eighth.

Dani Pedrosa completes the third row on his final MotoGP race having profited from late qualifying crashes by Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati) and Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3). Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro rounds out the fourth row.

With Iannone and Vinales progressing through Q1, Jorge Lorenzo was the unlucky 13th-placed rider to narrowly miss out on the factory Ducati – edged out by Vinales by four-hundredths of a second at the chequered flag.

MotoGP rookies Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) and Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda) impressed to displace Rossi down in sixth place in Q1 which puts him 16th on the starting grid for the 2018 finale.

Rossi, who struggled for pace throughout Saturday having suffered an early FP3 crash, remains in the battle for third place with pole-sitting team-mate Vinales, leading by just two points ahead of the Valencia race.