Cal Crutchlow followed up his maiden MotoGP victory by taking pole position on home soil at Silverstone by nearly a second in a wet qualifying session.
In challenging conditions, LCR Honda rider Crutchlow went to the top of the times with seven minutes remaining with a lap of 2m19.265s, and that was enough to claim his third career pole by nearly a second.
Championship leader Marc Marquez moved up into second place with two minutes left on the clock but then crashed immediately at Copse.
At that same moment, Valentino Rossi grabbed second for Yamaha, 0.998 seconds behind Crutchlow.
Maverick Vinales knocked Marquez off the front row before the end, while Dani Pedrosa also jumped his Honda team-mate to take fourth.
Eugene Laverty starred in the conditions on his Aspar Ducati, topping Q1 and moving up to fourth behind Marquez in the closing stages.
He was improving his time on his final lap and looked as if he could even challenge Crutchlow for pole, but crashed at Farm.
Laverty finished up a still-creditable sixth in front of fellow satellite rider Scott Redding.
The factory Ducati riders Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso had to settle for eighth and 10th, with Jorge Lorenzo in between them.
Jack Miller joined Laverty in making it out of Q1 but was 12th and slowest in Q2 behind Aleix Espargaro after crashing.
On his debut in place of Bradley Smith, Alex Lowes was sitting in the top two in Q1 at one stage before slipping back to sixth, putting him 18th on the grid.
QUALIFYING RESULTS:
| POS | RIDER | TEAM | BIKE | TIME | GAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cal Crutchlow | LCR Honda | Honda | 2m19.265s | – |
| 2 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | Yamaha | 2m20.263s | 0.998s |
| 3 | Maverick Vinales | Suzuki | Suzuki | 2m20.514s | 1.249s |
| 4 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | Honda | 2m20.742s | 1.477s |
| 5 | Marc Marquez | Honda | Honda | 2m20.779s | 1.514s |
| 6 | Eugene Laverty | Aspar Ducati | Ducati | 2m20.821s | 1.556s |
| 7 | Scott Redding | Pramac Ducati | Ducati | 2m21.074s | 1.809s |
| 8 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati | Ducati | 2m21.446s | 2.181s |
| 9 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | Yamaha | 2m21.687s | 2.422s |
| 10 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | Ducati | 2m22.420s | 3.155s |
| 11 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki | Suzuki | 2m25.285s | 6.020s |
| 12 | Jack Miller | Marc VDS Honda | Honda | 2m18.531s | – |
| 13 | Loris Baz | Avintia Ducati | Ducati | 2m18.552s | – |
| 14 | Danilo Petrucci | Pramac Ducati | Ducati | 2m18.657s | – |
| 15 | Pol Espargaro | Tech3 Yamaha | Yamaha | 2m18.871s | – |
| 16 | Alex Lowes | Tech3 Yamaha | Yamaha | 2m18.900s | – |
| 17 | Stefan Bradl | Aprilia | Aprilia | 2m19.115s | – |
| 18 | Hector Barbera | Avintia Ducati | Ducati | 2m19.125s | – |
| 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia | Aprilia | 2m20.299s | – |
| 20 | Yonny Hernandez | Aspar Ducati | Ducati | 2m21.255s | – |
| 21 | Tito Rabat | Marc VDS Honda | Honda | 2m21.774s | – |
