The 27-year-old Yamaha rider clocked 1min 55.527sec, a new record at the 5.4-kilometre (3.4-mile) circuit in the southern Czech city of Brno, for his second pole position of the season.

“A fantastic job today,” said Crutchlow, lavishing praise on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team.u00a0“We did a good job at progressing every session. We’ve struggled this weekend in most sessions and we seem to be getting better and better as the weekend goes on.”