Spain’s world championship leader Marc Marquez set himself up for a potential fifth successive MotoGP win by qualifying fastest for Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

The 20-year-old Honda rider – bidding to become the first rookie since American Kenny Roberts in 1978 to win the world championship – edged out Yamaha’s defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo to take his fifth pole position of the campaign.

“If I’m honest, I didn’t expect that lap time…especially with the first (rear) tyre,” Marquez told the MotoGP website.

“I had many slides and was pushing 100% but, despite that, the lap time was still really good.

“Then, with the second tyre, I thought I could maybe be one or two tenths faster, but it was immediately half a second faster on the first lap.

“On the second lap, I said, ‘I will not push more because I have already done a good lap time!’

“For tomorrow (Sunday), we will see. It will be interesting to see the race because at this circuit both types of rear tyre are working quite well, so it will be interesting to see which is the best one,” added Marquez, who won the now defunct 125cc world title in 2010 and the Moto2 crown last year.

Marquez left 26-year-old Lorenzo stunned as the latter had bettered the lap record with a time of 2min 00.819sec only to see his younger compatriot put in an even better lap of 2:00.691.

“I thought I had pole position,” said Lorenzo.

“I am disappointed because it was one of the best laps of my career and it was not enough.

“But it is a long race on Sunday and I hope to fight for victory.”

Briton Cal Crutchlow produced an impressive performance to take third place on the grid after a terrible time in practice earlier on Saturday as he crashed twice.

Stefan Bradl was fourth, Marquez’s team-mate Dani Pedrosa – who had started the season as principal factory rider but has seen his position usurped – fifth and Italy’s multiple world champion Valentino Rossi sixth.