Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) had unmatchable pace in the tricky, drying conditions in Q1 at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, topping the session and chipping away at his own best time to keep the top spot until the end.
Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was the other graduate, as the 3-time MotoGP™ World Champion fought back from having a tough weekend to show incredible progress and go through with Crutchlow – beating Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Viñales to the honour. Viñales will therefore start P13 as the first of those whose grid positions are decided.
Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was holding onto P2 until a crash saw him out of the session but the Brit, returning from injury, still took P4 in the session and will start P14 – ahead of Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), who had his worst qualifying session since 2011 and will line up P15.
Eugene Laverty and Yonny Hernandez (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) will start 16th and 17th, with the grid completed by Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini), Mike Jones (Avintia Racing), Loris Baz (Avintia Racing) and Tito Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS).