Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa continued his fine form from practice here at the Jerez circuit to secure a brilliant pole position in front of his home fans on Saturday afternoon.

The Spaniard leads what is a full Honda front row with teammate Marc Marques a close second, just .04 off Pedrosa's blistering pace and Cal Crutchlow who finished third for the LCR Honda team.

“This was probably one of the best poles of my career because it was a really hard battle,” Dani said. “It was a strategic end of the session with Marc there right behind me, so for a moment I wasn't sure if I should push or not. There was no choice anyway, so I just went for it. I'm very happy because our main target for the GP was to be on the front row.”

“The feeling was really good, and it has been good all weekend, so I told myself, Okay, let's try it. It has been a while since I've led in qualifying; I've struggled a lot last season so I'm very happy with today. Thanks to the team for the hard work, and I'm also happy for Honda. It looks like we're doing really well so let's focus for tomorrow and do the best we can!”

Maverick Vinales will start from fourth place with Andrea Iannone and Johann Zarco completing the second row of the grid.

After two challenging practice sessions yesterday in wet and drying conditions, today was our first chance to work on the dry set-up, but we hadn‘t anticipated facing this lack of grip,” explained Yamaha's Massimo Meregalli. “Anyway, we have been able to make some progress during today‘s sessions. We have improved the feeling on the bike for both riders throughout the day.

“We still have to work to create some more grip in time for tomorrow‘s warm-up, which is going to be a fundamental last practice opportunity to fine-tune the setting for the race. Tomorrow is predicted to be the hottest day of the weekend and this might affect our tyre choice. Maverick and Vale will be starting from second and third row and we expect that we will fight at the front of the field. We will give our all, as always, to make sure we‘re ready for the battle.”

Championship leader Valentino Rossi will start from eighth place alongside his former teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, the fastest Ducati rider on track, and Jonas Folger. Jack Miller rounds out the top ten.

Qualifying classification:
1. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team - 1'38.249
2. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team - 1'38.298/+0.049
3. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda - 1'38.453/+0.204
4. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'38.677/+0.428
5. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'38.744/+0.495
6. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'38.861/+0.612
7. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'38.908/+0.659
8. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team - 1'38.910/+0.661
9. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'39.108/+0.859
10. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 1'39.125/+0.876
11. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing - 1'39.152/+0.903
12. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 1'39.400/+1.151
13. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing - 1'39.090 (Q1)
14. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team - 1'39.255 (Q1)
15. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1'39.282 (Q1)
16. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1'39.321 (Q1)
17. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 1'39.462 (Q1)
18. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 1'39.564 (Q1)
19. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 1'39.678 (Q1)
20. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing - 1'39.824 (Q1)
21. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing - 1'39.906 (Q1)
22. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 1'40.213 (Q1)
23. Takuya TSUDA, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'40.386 (Q1)