Valentino Rossi ends four-year pole drought at Valencia MotoGP

The Italian topped the timesheets at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo on Saturday with a fine lap of one minute and 30.843secs, the Movistar Yamaha man beating Pramac Racing's Andrea Iannone to top spot by just 0.132secs.

Six-time world champion Rossi had not qualified at the front of the grid since doing so at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans in May 2010, and the 35-year-old conceded he was surprised to have ended that drought.

"I remember we race in black and white [when he last took pole]," Rossi joked.

"On the first tyre I wasn't so bad, the second I had good grip. On the last lap I can improve. I look on the screen, I see I am on the second row so I was surprised to see pole."

Rossi sits 12 points ahead of team-mate Jorge Lorenzo as he seeks to secure second place in the standings behind world champion Marc Marquez [1:31.144], who missed the chance to extend his record for pole positions in a season to 14.

Marquez will start his bid to become the first MotoGP rider to win 13 races in a campaign from fifth, one place behind Lorenzo [1:31.049], while his Repsol Honda colleague Dani Pedrosa [1:30.999] qualified in third position.

Meanwhile, it was an inauspicious first qualifying session since 2011 for Suzuki, whose rider Randy de Puniet will start from 20th position.