Both Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez suffered accidents in Jerez on Saturday, with the former falling at the end of qualifying whereas the latter had his slip-up in final practice. The duo will start second and third on Sunday’s grid.

At the end of Friday, Pedrosa had hoped for pole position. Having lost control at Jorge Lorenzo corner on his final qualifying run, the Honda rider missed out on the top spot to its namesake by two and a half tenths of a second.

"I was pushing a little too hard in that corner," Pedrosa explained in the post-qualifying press conference. "I don’t know why but maybe the track was a little different, as we had already seen some crashes in Moto3™ and MotoGP™.

"I just lost the front, but fortunately I’m okay and the bike seems quite good for tomorrow. I think the race is going to be the thing, because the rhythm is the most important thing here. It looks like some riders have good pace, so the race might be tight, but I hope to make a good start and have a good race."

Marquez heads into his first premier class Grand Prix at home in Spain as the championship leader, although the 20-year-old would be happy with a top three result.

"I don’t think so," he replied when asked if repeating his Austin victory was possible. "Anyway, we will try to do our best. I think this front row today is so important for us. I’m very happy because at this circuit we were struggling a lot in free practice. Even so, in qualifying I tried to do my best and I was quite close – it was better than I expected.

"I have good confidence for tomorrow, but I do think Jorge and Dani are one step in front of us. Anyway, I will try to do my best and to be concentrated and calm in front of my home fans."

Repsol Honda Team was triumphant in Jerez last year, as double World Champion Casey Stoner celebrated the first Spanish Grand Prix win of his career.

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