- Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) will start from pole for the sixth time this year. This is his fourth successive pole position and his longest sequence of successive poles since 2014. Marques has been on the podium at the last five races.
- Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), who is making his 300th premier class Grand Prix start, has qualified on the front row for the fifth time in 2017. His only podium finish in the last eight races was his victory at the Dutch TT run in wet conditions. Rossi has finished on the podium for the last three years at Silverstone, including a win in 2015.
- Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) starts from third place on the grid, which is his first front row since the Spanish Grand Prix. He will be aiming to become the first British rider to win a premier class Grand Prix on home soil since the British round of the World Championship was moved from the Isle of Man TT Circuit in 1977.
- Last year’s British Grand Prix winner, Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), heads the second row of the grid. Viñales is aiming to be just the fifth rider in the history of Grand Prix racing to win in the premier class at the same circuit in successive years on motorcycles from two different manufacturers.
- For the fourth time this year, Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) is the highest-placed Ducati rider on the grid, in the middle of the second row.
- In sixth place on the grid is his teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who has won three times in the last six races after taking just two victories in his previous 165 MotoGP™ starts.
- Heading the third row is Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), who has finished on the podium seven times in the last nine races.
- Eighth fastest qualifier and the highest-placed rookie on the grid is Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), who won the Moto2™ race at Silverstone two years ago.
- Taking the final place on the third row is Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini), which is the fourth time this year he has qualified in the top ten.
- Jonas Folger (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) is in tenth place on the grid, with a qualifying time within nine tenths of Marquez on pole.
- Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) on a KTM is in the middle of the fourth row and Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) heads the fifth row riding a Suzuki, making it six different manufacturers in the top thirteen places on the grid.
- Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Aspar Team), who is starting from 14th place on the grid, is making his 250th Grand Prix start.