- Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) starts from pole for the fourth successive year at the Argentine Grand Prix. If Marquez does not win in Argentina it will be the first time in his five seasons in the MotoGP™ class that he will have failed to win at least one of the opening two races of the year.
- Karel Abraham (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) is the highest placed Ducati rider in second place on the grid, which is his first ever front row start in Grand Prix racing. This is the first front row start for a rider from the Czech Republic in the MotoGP™ class since it was introduced as the premier class of Grand Prix racing in 2002.
- In third place on the grid is Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), who has failed to finish the last three MotoGP™ races since he won the Australian Grand Prix, which was also his last front row start.
- Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) heads the second row of the grid, which equals his best previous grid position from the German Grand Prix last year.
- Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) is in fifth place on the grid, which is his best qualifying result since the British Grand Prix last year.
- Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) is the highest qualifying Yamaha rider in sixth place on the grid. Viñales is aiming to be the first Yamaha rider since Wayne Rainey in 1990 to win the opening two premier-class Grand Prix races of the year.
- Heading the third row of the grid is Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), who is making his 350th Grand Prix start. Rossi has finished on the podium on 34 occasions in the premier class when he has failed to qualify in one of the top six places on the grid.
- This is the first time since the opening race of 2015 in Qatar that Yamaha do not have a rider in the top five places on the grid.
- Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) is in eighth place on the grid, which equals the best qualifying result achieved by an Aprilia rider throughout 2016, which was Stefan Bradl at the Australian Grand Prix.
- Loris Baz (Reale Avintia Racing) takes the final place on the third row, which is his best qualifying result in MotoGP.
- Jonas Folger i(Monster Yamaha Tech 3) s the best qualifier of the four rookies in the MotoGP™ field, in 11th place on the grid.
- Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) is in 13th place on the grid and team-mate Jorge Lorenzo is 16th, which is the first time since Laguna Seca in 2006 that neither of the riders in the Ducati factory team have qualified in the top twelve places on the grid.