Alex Marquez claimed his first pole position since Austin after continuing his domination of the Moto2 weekend at Sepang in qualifying. The Spaniard has been quickest in every single session of the Malaysian Grand Prix so far and was in a class of his own on Saturday afternoon, taking pole by half a second from Luca Marini.
Many of the fastest lap times were set at the start of the qualifying session with new tyre allocations being so tight and Marquez would clock a 2:05.629 on his second flying lap of the afternoon. The one rider to buck the trend was Marini who lifted himself from fourth to second in the final five minutes, relegating Fabio Quartararo to third on the Speed Up.
The late improvement from Marini also denied Remy Gardner a magnificent front row start on the Tech 3 Mistral 610. The Australian will still line up an impressive fourth ahead of Phillip Island polesitter Mattia Pasini with the two championship contenders next up. Francesco Bagnaia, who will clinch the title with a podium finish on Sunday, looked in trouble after his opening run left him down in eleventh but a crucial improvement at the halfway point hauled him up to sixth, crucially one place ahead of chief rival Miguel Oliveira.
Xavi Vierge will start eighth ahead of the second Red Bull KTM of the in-form Brad Binder while Marcel Schrotter completes the top ten.
Moto2 Shell Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix (Qualifying)
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