Honda's Marc Marquez smashed his previous Circuit of the Americas lap record on the way to securing a second MotoGP pole position of the season.
Despite an ongoing recovery from a broken leg, the reigning world champion proved to be in a league of his own as he dominated qualifying from start to finish.
His blistering 2.02.773s effort broke his existing lap record by two tenths of a second leaving the rest of the field struggling to match his pace.
Team-mate Dani Pedrosa emerged as Marquez's nearest challenger posting a time almost three tenths of a second adrift to secure second spot.
Germany's Stefan Bradl confirmed his impressive practice pace to grab third for an all-Honda front row lockout.
Aleix Espargaro continued to turn heads as he was fourth fastest on his Open Class Forward Yamaha ahead of the works Yamaha duo of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi respectively.
Ducati's Cal Crutchow enjoyed his best showing for his new team by posting the seventh fastest time but he was a second adrift of pole man Marquez.
Tech 3 Yamaha's Bradley Smith, Pramac Ducati's Andrea Iannone and Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso rounded out the top 10.
Australia's Broc Parkes will start from 21st on the grid for Paul Bird Motorsport.
In Moto3, Queensland's Jack Miller stormed to his maiden pole position in the category after a dominant display in qualifying.
The 19-year-old from Townsville, who won the opening round of the championship in Qatar, was a full three tenths of a second quicker than his closest challenger Efren Vazquez.
“It's nice to start from pole position but the main focus of the weekend is to have a good race tomorrow,” said Miller
“In every session we were able to get more comfortable with the bike and found better settings.
“We have a good setup for the race, but we have to continue working tomorrow morning and we'll see where we end up.”
MotoGP Qualifying Results – Circuit of the Americas
Pos | Rider | Team/Bike | Times | Gap |
1 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 2m02.773s | |
2 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | 2m03.062s | +0.289s |
3 | Stefan Bradl | LCR Honda | 2m03.196s | +0.423s |
4 | Aleix Espargaro | Forward Yamaha | 2m03.240s | +0.467s |
5 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 2m03.243s | +0.470s |
6 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 2m03.244s | +0.471s |
7 | Cal Crutchlow | Ducati | 2m03.780s | +1.007s |
8 | Bradley Smith | Tech 3 Yamaha | 2m03.800s | +1.027s |
9 | Andrea Iannone | Pramac Ducati | 2m03.842s | +1.069s |
10 | Andrea Dovizios | Ducati | 2m03.846s | +1.073s |
11 | Pol Espargaro | Tech 3 Yamaha | 2m03.913s | +1.140s |
12 | Alvaro Bautista | Gresini Honda | 2m03.923s | +1.150s |
13 | Scott Redding | Gresini Honda | 2m04.617s | Q1 |
14 | Nicky Hayden | Aspar Honda | 2m05.062s | Q1 |
15 | Yonny Hernandez | Pramac Ducati | 2m05.677s | Q1 |
16 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Aspar Honda | 2m05.788s | Q1 |
17 | Karel Abraham | Cardion Honda | 2m06.239s | Q1 |
18 | Hector Barbera | Avintia FTR-Kawasaki | 2m06.270s | Q1 |
19 | Colin Edwards | Forward Yamaha | 2m06.741s | Q1 |
20 | Michael Laverty | PBM Aprilia | 2m06.939s | Q1 |
21 | Broc Parkes | PBM Aprilia | 2m07.403s | Q1 |
22 | Danilo Petrucci | Ioda Aprilia | 2m07.745s | Q1 |
23 | Mike di Meglio | Avintia FTR-Kawasaki | 2m07.761s | Q1 |
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