Honda's Spanish star Marc Marquez has claimed pole position for the Argentine MotoGP with Yamaha's Italian great Valentino Rossi and champion Jorge Lorenzo joining him on the front row on a day of drama.
The pole was Marquez's third in a row at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit.
The 23-year-old double world champion set his best lap of one minute 39.411 seconds early in the session and then suffered a minor crash without injury three minutes from the end that prevented him improving the time.
"I'm happy with how the bike is going and with the pace we have," said Marquez.
"We know what my crashes today were due to, the first was down to changing the set up but the second was because we pushed too hard."
The earlier fourth free practice session was red-flagged and restarted twice for safety reasons after British rider Scott Redding suffered a problem with his Michelin rear tyre that damaged his Ducati.
"I felt some chattering with the rear tyre then something hit me. I saw pieces of the bike fly everywhere. I thought the tyre had exploded and I was getting ready for a nasty crash," said the rider.
"I managed to run off the track without falling and I feel lucky to be standing here to talk about it."
Reuters
