Iannone only took pole as the chequered flag waved, grabbing the top spot from Rossi’s Yamaha with a lap of 1m23.142s.

Dovizioso had to settle for third on the second works Ducati, while Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo qualified on the inside of the second row, having held pole with just a few minutes remaining.

Points leader Marc Marquez, who dislocated his shoulder this morning in practice, will start fifth. He lost the front-end of his Honda at Turn 10 early in Q2, but just managed to save it.

Story of the session

Dovizioso set the early benchmark on 1m23.668s, topped by Iannone on 1m23.623s – but Lorenzo split the Ducatis, just 0.016s off provisional pole.

Dovizioso retook pole with 1m23.598s, restoring the Ducati 1-2 at the halfway point of the session. But Lorenzo lurked just 0.041s off the fastest time.

Lorenzo slammed in 1m23.361s, a whacking 0.237s faster at that point as the track evolved quickly. Dovizioso responded, but fell 0.035s short, as did Iannone on 1m23.396s, who was 0.043s away.

Dovizioso then grabbed P1 with his very last lap, that was topped by Rossi and then Iannone, who managed a session-topping 1m23.142s.

Lorenzo tumbled to fourth, two tenths off pole position. His bike appeared to run out of fuel on his in-lap too.

After an early scare at Turn 10, when he just managed to regain control of the front wheel of his bike as it folded underneath him, Marquez will start fifth – lapping a third of a second off the pace.

Maverick Vinales will start sixth for Suzuki, ahead of Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati), Suzuki’s Aleix Espargaro and Hector Barbera (Avintia Ducati).

Eugene Laverty (Aspar Ducati) and the second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa rounded out the top 12.

Laverty produces Q1 shock

Crutchlow, who was P2 after the first Q1 run, had his fastest lap deleted due to track limits at Turn 10, so had to try again. He unleashed a 1m24.176s, which was then beaten by Danilo Petrucci on 1m24.123s.

Crutchlow went faster again, reducing the top time to 1m23.970s, but then Laverty set a stunning 1m23.961s to grasp away the top time and progressed to Q2 for the first time in his career.

Petrucci will start 13th from Bradley Smith, who qualified ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha teammate Pol Espargaro. Yonny Hernandez and Michele Pirro were next up.

Jack Miller crashed at Turn 4 early on in Q1, and qualified on his second bike. He will start 20th.

Q2 results:

Cla	Driver	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1'23.142
2	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'23.289	0.147
3	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'23.298	0.156
4	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1'23.361	0.219
5	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'23.475	0.333
6	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki	1'23.584	0.442
7	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'23.597	0.455
8	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'23.777	0.635
9	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	1'23.813	0.671
10	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'23.822	0.680
11	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	1'24.218	1.076
12	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'24.263	1.121

Q1 results:

Cla	Driver	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	1'23.961
2	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'23.970	0.009
3	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'24.123	0.162
4	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	1'24.126	0.165
5	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha	1'24.265	0.304
6	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	1'24.472	0.511
7	Michele Pirro	Ducati	1'24.593	0.632
8	Tito Rabat	Honda	1'24.665	0.704
9	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	1'24.673	0.712
10	Jack Miller	Honda	1'24.852	0.891
11	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	1'24.895	0.934
12	Loris Baz	Ducati	1'25.192	1.231