Valentino Rossi denied Andrea Iannone a maiden MotoGP pole position in Valencia qualifying, as a crash left Marc Marquez back in fifth.

Provisional pole had changed hands relentlessly in one of the hardest-fought Q2 sessions of the year before Rossi claimed his 50th MotoGP pole and his first since the 2010 French Grand Prix.

Rossi’s Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was the early pacesetter, before Tech 3 rider Pol Espargaro and Iannone took turns up front.

Iannone looked a strong contender for his and Pramac’s maiden pole in his last event before officially becoming a works Ducati rider, reclaiming the spot once after a quick lap from Rossi had briefly demoted him.

Marquez was only seventh initially, although he was just 0.222 seconds from first place in an extremely tight pack.

The first lap of his second run brought him to second behind Iannone, but he then crashed under braking for Turn 4 while up on the Italian with his next lap.

Before Iannone could begin celebrating, Rossi completed a 1m30.843s lap that ended his long pole drought by 0.142s.

A late improvement from Dani Pedrosa meant he came within 0.024s of stealing second from Iannone, as he relegated Lorenzo and Marquez to fourth and fifth.

Espargaro ended up sixth ahead of team-mate Bradley Smith and his fellow Briton Cal Crutchlow, with Andrea Dovizioso only ninth on the other factory Ducati.

Stefan Bradl and Ducati test rider Michele Pirro easily progressed from Q1 and qualified 10th and 12th, sandwiching Aleix Espargaro.

Suzuki’s MotoGP return will start from only 20th on the grid, with Randy de Puniet a second off the pace in Q1.

The full field of 25 riders participated in qualifying despite Alex de Angelis and Karel Abraham crashing in practice four a few minutes earlier.

De Angelis in particular looked in pain following his fall, but he made it to Q1 and qualified 19th, with Abraham 23rd.

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