Andrea Iannone and Aleix Espargaro were the fastest in the first qualifying session and managed to join the ten fastest in the three free practice sessions to compete for places on the first four rows of the starting grid.
| #SpanishGP MotoGP | 2016 | 2017 |
| FP1 | 1'40.270 Jorge Lorenzo | 1'51.648 Dani Pedrosa |
| FP2 | 1'39.555 Jorge Lorenzo | 1'39.420 Dani Pedrosa |
| FP3 | 1'39.244 Valentino Rossi | 1'38.580 Dani Pedrosa |
| FP4 | 1'39.241 Jorge Lorenzo | 1'39.467 Marc Marquez |
| Q1 | 1'39.907 Cal Crutchlow | 1'38.919 Andrea Iannone |
| Q2 | 1'38.736 Valentino Rossi | |
| Warm Up | 1'39.513 Marc Marquez | |
| Course | Rossi, Lorenzo, Marquez | |
| All time lap record | 1'37.910 Jorge Lorenzo 2015 |
There were 13 (superstitious?) trying to qualify for Q2: Andrea Iannone, Tito Rabat, Danilo Petrucci, Aleix Espargaro, Alvaro Bautista, Andrea Dovizioso, Bradley Smith, Pol Espargaro, Hector Barbera, Loris Baz, Karel Abraham, Sam Lowes and Takuya Tsuda.
Sam Lowes was stuck at his stand with a fuel supply problem on his Aprilia. During the first run, Andrea Iannone first achieved 1'39.837, 0.03 ahead Alex Espargaro and 0.1 ahead Bradley Smith. Aleix Espargaro took command in 1'39.168. His teammate Sam Lowes finally came out of his pit box 9 minutes from the checkered flag.
Aleix Espargaro improved to 1'39.168, 0.1 ahead Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone. Loris Baz was eleventh.
In the second and final run, Aleix Espargaro increased his advantage to 1'38.942, while Danilo Petrucci moved to second by 0.1. Andrea Iannone took the best time in 1'38.919, 0.02 ahead of Espargaro, followed by Petrucci and Dovizioso.
Finally, Andrea Iannone and Aleix Espargaro qualified for Q2. Note the good performances of the KTMs with Pol Espargaro fifth and Bradley Smith sixth. Loris Baz ranked tenth.
Results of the first qualifying session (compiled by crash.net:
1. Andrea Iannone
ITA Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 1m 38.919s [Lap 7/8] 290km/h (Top Speed)
2. Alex Espargaro ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 1m 38.942s +0.023s [6/7] 292km/h
3. Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP17) 1m 39.090s +0.171s
[6/8] 290km/h
4. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP17) 1m 39.255s +0.336s [6/7] 294km/h
5. Espargaro Pol ESP Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) 1m 39.282s +0.363s [7/8] 294km/h
6. Bradley Smith GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) 1m 39.321s +0.402s [6/8] 291km/h
7. Alvaro Bautista ESP Pull&Bear Aspar Team (Desmosedici GP16) 1m 39.462s +0.543s [6/8] 291km/h
8. Tito Rabat ESP Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 1m 39.564s +0.645s
[6/7] 292km/h
9. Karel Abraham CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team (Desmosedici GP15) 1m 39.678s +0.759s [7/8] 294km/h
10. Loris Baz FRA Reale Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP15) 1m 39.824s +0.905s [7/7] 287km/h
11. Hector Barbera ESP Reale Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP16) 1m 39.906s +0.987s
[3/8] 293km/h
12. Sam Lowes GBR Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)* 1m 40.213s +1.294s [5/5] 287km/h
13. Takuya Tsuda JPN Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 1m 40.386s +1.467s [7/8] 287km/h
Photo © motogp.com
