Drought-breaking pole for Dovizioso in Czech Republic

Andrea Dovizioso has qualified on pole for the first time in over a season-and-a-half while Valentino Rossi also made the front row for the Czech MotoGP.

The Ducati Team rider ended Qualifying 2 a healthy 0.267s faster than Rossi, with Marc Marquez knocked back to third by the two Italians.

It was the other factory Ducati rider of Jorge Lorenzo who had started brightest, reeling out the then-fastest lap of the weekend (1:55.059s) on his first flyer.

The Spaniard lowered his own benchmark slightly to 1:55.038s at the start of his second run before Marquez lapped the Automotodrom Brno in 1:54.961s on his Repsol Honda.

When the chequered flag flew, Marquez was still fastest from Lorenzo and Cal Crutchlow, but that was about to change.

Dovizioso pulled out a 1:54.689s just before Rossi took his Movistar Yamaha to a 1:54.956s.

The pole is the first for ‘Desmodovi’ since the 2016 Malaysian MotoGP.

Lorenzo ended up fourth and will start alongside Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati).

Row 3 will be Johann Zarco (Tech3 Yamaha) and the Suzuki Ecstar entries of Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins, the latter of whom came through Qualifying 1.

Behind them are Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati), and Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha).

The latter had failed to earn a direct pass to the second stage of qualifying but was comfortably quickest in Q1.

Jack Miller might have emulated the Spaniard in moving through to the final 12, going fastest to the second sector before crashing his Pramac Ducati during his final run.

The Australian will start 17th as a result.

Aleix Espargaro (Gresini Aprilia) was fit enough to take on the race weekend after a sizeable crash in the warm up during the last round in Germany and qualified 24th.

The 21-lap grand prix starts on Sunday at 2200 AEST.

Qualifying: Czech MotoGP

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time	Gap 1st/prev
1	04	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	1:54.689
2	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1:54.956	0.267 / 0.267
3	93	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1:54.961	0.272 / 0.005
4	99	Jorge LORENZO	ESP	Ducati Team	Ducati	1:55.038	0.349 / 0.077
5	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	1:55.055	0.366 / 0.017
6	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	1:55.203	0.514 / 0.148
7	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	1:55.221	0.532 / 0.018
8	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:55.270	0.581 / 0.049
9	42	Alex RINS	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:55.431	0.742 / 0.161
10	26	Dani PEDROSA	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1:55.474	0.785 / 0.043
11	53	Tito RABAT	ESP	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	1:55.686	0.997 / 0.212
12	25	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1:55.823	1.134 / 0.137
13	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	1:56.029	Q1 / Q1
14	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	ESP	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	1:56.031	Q1 / 0.002
15	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:56.218	Q1 / 0.187
16	55	Hafizh SYAHRIN	MAL	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	1:56.285	Q1 / 0.067
17	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	1:56.316	Q1 / 0.031
18	6	Stefan BRADL	GER	HRC Honda Team	Honda	1:56.330	Q1 / 0.014
19	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:56.353	Q1 / 0.023
20	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	1:56.512	Q1 / 0.159
21	50	Sylvain GUINTOLI	FRA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:57.037	Q1 / 0.525
22	12	Thomas LUTHI	SUI	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	1:57.208	Q1 / 0.171
23	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	1:57.217	Q1 / 0.009
24	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1:57.250	Q1 / 0.033
25	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1:57.438	Q1 / 0.188
26	10	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	1:58.048	Q1 / 0.610