Gresini's Jorge Martin snatched a thirlling pole position for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone by the smallest of margins, as just 0.001s split the Spaniard and Jaume Masia.
It was a mad last-minute dash for the top spot which saw Martin emerge as the frontrunner as the clock ticked down to zero. The close session saw the top three covered by just 0.022s as Leopard Racing's Lorenzo Dalla Porta bagged himself a front-row start in third.
It was Martin’s team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio who sat on provisional pole as a shower sprinkled the Silverstone surface with 20 minutes of the session to go. However, the sun soon re-appeared just in time to give the lightweight class enough time to get two more flying laps in.
Fourth place Albert Arenas joined Martin, Masia and Dalla Porta in leapfrogging ‘Diggia’ at the end, the Italian eventually settling for fifth.
Tatsuki Suzuki will line up sixth on the grid, with Gabriel Rodrigo slipping to seventh after sitting P2 before the riders came back out on track – the Argentine will be ruing his late crash at Turn 11 while on a personal best lap, he went to the medical centre for a checkup.
Enea Bastianini will launch from P8 on the grid as the Italian threatened the front row on his final run, with Nicolo Bulega grabbing ninth and Marcos Ramirez rounding out the top ten.
Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi was tucked in behind Martin on the final flying lap, but he crashed at Turn 9 to end his hopes of a British GP pole – P11 for the Italian.
Niccolo Antonelli will start 12th, the Italian was caught up in a scary looking collision near the entrance to pitlane with 15th place Adam Norrodin as the rain started to fall.
John McPhee will start his home GP from P19 but with rain expected on Sunday, can he reproduce his Brno 2016 heroics?
