Factory Movistar Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales continued his good form to fly to his second pole position at the final time of asking in 2018 in an action packed MotoGP qualifying session that saw World Champion Marc Marquez dislocate his shoulder and Valentino Rossi set start from sixteenth.

Holding off Jorge Lorenzo in qualifying one by just 0.042 seconds to get into Q2 alongside Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone, Vinales was down in eighth place after the opening run of laps in Q2.

Coming in with a clear instruction for crew chief Ramon Forcada, Vinales came back out and wasted little time in moving past provisional pole sitter Danilo Petrucci. Vinales then went even faster, posting his fastest time of the session, a 1:31.312.

Despite late charges from both Alex Rins and Andrea Dovizioso, the Spaniard held off the factory Suzuki and Ducati riders for his first pole since the Circuit of the Americas back in April.

Rins’ second place start is his first front row start in MotoGP and he held off Dovizioso by just 0.012.

Petrucci couldn’t quite sign off from his Pramac stint with a front row start and missed out on the front row, finishing behind his 2019 team-mate by 0.022 seconds.

Marquez will start in fifth position, but it could’ve been a whole lot worse for the 25-year-old. The Spaniard crashed out at the right-handed turn four on his first flying lap. The Repsol Honda man immediately grabbed his weak left shoulder and it quickly became clear that the Spaniard had dislocated his shoulder.

After a lift back into the pits by personal manager Emilio Alzamora and a quick trip into the Repsol Honda truck to get it popped back into place, Marquez went back out and resumed qualifying. It wasn’t quite another Marquez miracle, as he ended just 0.130 seconds behind Vinales.

KTM made it five different manufacturers in the top six, with Pol Espargaro just 0.265 seconds behind the Yamaha.

Iannone will head the third row in seventh position and be joined by the older Espargaro brother in the shape of Aleix and Dani Pedrosa on the third row of the grid.

Jack Miller suffered his fourth crash of the weekend and will start from tenth, less than a tenth ahead of Johann Zarco who crashed out late, on a lap, which would’ve seen him likely end up on the front row. Ducati test rider Michele Pirro rounded out the Q1 participants.

Lorenzo will head the fifth row and as he continues to recover from his wrist injury, with Honda rookies Taka Nakagami and Franco Morbidelli starting next to each other.

Valentino Rossi will head the sixth row of the grid, starting in sixteenth position on his factory Yamaha. The Doctor has gone winless through 2018 and will want his miserable year to come to an end sooner rather than later.