Suzuki 1-2 in Barcelona; Rossi only manages seventh

The Suzuki Ecstar team not only finished on pole but claimed a 1-2 in Q2 with Espargaro’s teammate Maverick Vinales slotting into second. This was Suzuki’s first pole since Chris Vermeulen's at Assen in 2007.

In doing so, the Spaniard smashed Dani Pedrosa’s 2013 lap record (1’40.893) by over 0.4s as he set a 1’40.546 around the 4.7km circuit to claim his second MotoGP pole. Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was third.

His teammate and championship leader Valentino Rossi only managed seventh. The Italian has had a poor run leading into qualifying.

Honda’s Marc Marquez benefitted from a new exhaust on his RC213V in Barcelona, qualifying fourth behind Lorenzo. He looked like he could challenge for pole, but a poor last sector denied him the top slot.

Dani Pedrosa, in his second GP since his return, qualified sixth behind Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso who was fifth while his teammate Andrea Iannone only managed 12th in his effort.

Bradley Smith, riding his Tech 3 Yamaha, will start from eighth on the grid as the leading satellite rider, ahead of his compatriot Cal Crutchlow of LCR Honda, who suffered a crash at turn 10.

Octo Pramac Racing’s Yonny Hernandez rounds out the top ten.

Karel Abraham of AB Motoracing missed qualifying and will not race after he suffered a nasty crash in FP4, severely dislocating the big toe on his left foot.

Starting lineup

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	1'40.546	-
2	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	1'40.629	0.083
3	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1'40.646	0.100
4	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'40.754	0.208
5	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'40.907	0.361
6	Daniel Pedrosa	Honda	1'40.928	0.382
7	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'41.058	0.512
8	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	1'41.068	0.522
9	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'41.195	0.649
10	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	1'41.333	0.787
11	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha	1'41.385	0.839
12	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1'41.524	0.978
13	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'42.003	1.457
14	Scott Redding	Honda	1'42.029	1.483
15	Stefan Bradl	Yamaha Forward	1'42.053	1.507
16	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'42.155	1.609
17	Mike Di Meglio	Ducati	1'42.273	1.727
18	Nicky Hayden	Honda	1'42.485	1.939
19	Loris Baz	Yamaha Forward	1'42.592	2.046
20	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	1'42.600	2.054
21	Jack Miller	Honda	1'42.928	2.382
22	Eugene Laverty	Honda	1'42.971	2.425
23	Alex de Angelis	ART/Aprilia	1'43.601	3.055
24	Marco Melandri	Aprilia	1'44.345	3.799
25	Karel Abraham	Honda	1'43.008	2.46