Shock pole for Bautista

Alvaro Bautista: Shock pole at Silverstone

Cal Crutchlow suffered more Silverstone heartache as Spain's Alvaro Bautista claimed a shock pole at the MotoGP British Grand Prix.

Crutchlow, currently lying fifth in the championship standings, fell heavily at turn 13 in cold and wet conditions and injuring an ankle.

He was taken to hospital for further examination, with the rider in significant discomfort, but that revealed a sprained ankle rather than a fracture, meaning he could still start Sunday's race, albeit from the back of the grid.

It is the second successive year that Crutchlow has suffered a cruel injury on home soil after breaking his left collarbone in qualifying.

Meanwhile, Bautista (San Carlo Honda Gresini) clocked two minutes 3.303 seconds to top qualifying ahead of American Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory) and Australia's defending champion Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda).

"I never thought that I could get a pole position so early," said Bautista, who only joined Gresini last year on the death of Marco Simoncelli.

"But today I felt very good on the bike and in the wet and dry I felt very comfortable. The (qualifying) practice was quite difficult because the rain started sometimes and at the end it started again to rain."

Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory), who leads the standings by 20 points from Stoner, was fourth fastest.

Ducati Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi both suffered crashes at Vale corner during qualifying.

Hayden posted a time good enough for seventh on the grid before crashing out, while Rossi recovered from a crash at the start of the session to qualify in 10th.