Dani Pedrosa takes pole in Jerez ahead of Marc Marquez
ByReuters
Updated 06/05/2017 at 17:34 GMT
Dani Pedrosa will start his home Spanish Grand Prix on pole position after forcing Honda team mate and reigning world champion Marc Marquez to settle for second place in Saturday's qualifying.
Dani Pedrosa (Honda HRC) - GP of Spain 2017
Image credit: Getty Images
Britain's Cal Crutchlow, on a non-works LCR Honda, denied Spain a trio of home riders on the front row for Sunday's race with Yamaha's Maverick Vinales fourth.
The pole, in a time of one minute 38.249 seconds, was Pedrosa's first in 18 months - since Malaysia in October 2015 - and 29th of his career.
"It's been quite a long time I've been struggling in qualifying, not able to do good lap times and to be on the front row consistently," he said.
"The key for me in this qualifying was to be able to finish on the front row.
He beat triple champion Marquez by 0.049 of a second, with Sunday's race the first of four in Spain this season.
Yamaha's Italian great Valentino Rossi, leading the championship at the age of 38, starts seventh.
Qualifying results
1. Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 1:38.249
2. Marc Marquez (Spain) Honda 1:38.298
3. Cal Crutchlow (Britain) Honda 1:38.453
4. Maverick Vinales (Spain) Yamaha 1:38.677
5. Andrea Iannone (Italy) Suzuki 1:38.744
6. Johann Zarco (France) Yamaha 1:38.861
7. Valentino Rossi (Italy) Yamaha 1:38.908
8. Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Ducati 1:38.910
9. Jonas Folger (Germany) Yamaha 1:39.108
10. Jack Miller (Australia) Honda 1:39.125
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