Marquez on pole for Great British contest

Honda rider Márquez set a time of 2:00.829 to beat Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso by 0.311s, with Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo in third.

Lorenzo set a quick time early on and he was hounded throughout his lap by Dovizioso, who used the tow from the Yamaha to move to the front.

Márquez's initial lap was only good enough for third place but he pressed on and jumped to the head of the times by 0.336s after setting a 2:01.259.

Lorenzo moved ahead by fractions before Márquez emerged for his second run and posted a 2:00.829, eclipsing his compatriot by 0.346s.

Dovizioso dragged his Ducati up to second, displacing Lorenzo, but remained over three-tenths of a second behind Márquez.

Aleix Espargaró was a fine fourth while Honda's Dani Pedrosa, who ended Márquez's winning streak at Brno, was fifth quickest. Valentino Rossi put in a late lap to elevate himself to sixth position, narrowly in front of the Tech 3 pairing of Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaró. Stefan Bradl, who suffered two accidents during Saturday morning practice, completed the session in ninth place.

Andrea Iannone was on course for a good time but crashed out at Aintree and ended up in 10th, with British rider Scott Redding and Álvaro Bautista completing the Q2 contenders.

Yonny Hernández was the quickest rider to fail to make it through and will start from 13th place, ahead of Karel Abraham and Ducati's home rider Cal Crutchlow.

Hiroshi Aoyama will occupy 16th position, ahead of Alex De Angelis and Leon Camier, who exited qualifying prematurely after crashing his Aspar machine at Farm curve.

Danilo Petrucci will begin from 19th place, while Michael Laverty, Héctor Barberá, Mike Di Meglio and Broc Parkes round out the runners.