Andrea Iannone put Ducati on pole position for their home Italian Grand Prix at Mugello yesterday while Honda’s double world champion Marc Marquez suffered a career low and will have to start from the fifth row of the grid.

Iannone’s first MotoGP pole came after last year’s winner Marquez, who will have to fight back from 13th place today, failed to make it through to the final stage of qualifying for the first time.

The Italian’s lap record time of one minute 46.489 was all the more impressive after he revealed last week that he had raced at the previous French Grand Prix with a fractured left arm as well as a dislocated shoulder.

MotoGP’s overall championship leader and home hero Valentino Rossi qualified in eighth place with Spanish team-mate Jorge Lorenzo sandwiched between the two Ducatis of Iannone and Italian Andrea Dovizioso on the front row.

Lorenzo will still fancy his chances of a third win in a row, however.

The pole was Ducati’s first at Mugello since Australian Casey Stoner in 2007 and the top 11 qualifiers were all inside the previous track record time.

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