Rossi on pole for season finale at Valencia

Rossi's time of 1:30.843 was 0.132s quicker than Pramac rider Andrea Iannone, while Honda's Dani Pedrosa posted a last gasp lap to round out the front row of the grid.

Jorge Lorenzo was fourth for Yamaha while Marc Márquez had set a rapid first sector time before he lost control of the front end of his Honda and slithered into the gravel.

Márquez was able to walk away from his stricken bike and had already set a lap good enough for fifth.

Pol Espargaró placed sixth, ahead of Tech 3 team-mate Bradley Smith and Ducati pairing Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso.

Stefan Bradl progressed through from Q1 and set the 10th fastest time, ahead of Aleix Espargaró and Michele Pirro.

Álvaro Bautista was the quickest rider out of the group unable to progress from Q1 and will start the race from 13th position, ahead of Scott Redding and Yonny Hernández.

2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden placed 16th, ahead of Héctor Barberá, Hiroshi Aoyama and Alex de Angelis.

Suzuki made its MotoGP return with test rider Randy de Puniet and the Frenchman ended the session in 20th position.

Danilo Petrucci, Michael Laverty, Karel Abraham, Broc Parkes and Mike Di Meglio complete the grid.