Francesco Bagnaia claimed his third Moto2 pole of the season in a red-flagged Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, while points leader Miguel Oliveira will start second.
As is customary in Moto2 this season, the opening handful of minutes were a frantic affair, with Oliveira delighting the Austrian crowd by guiding his KTM to top spot with a 1:30.342s.
Bagnaia made sure his direct championship rival's time in the limelight was short live, though, with the Italian going four tenths clear with an opening effort of 1:30.128s.
The Sky VR46 rider improved to a 1:29.787s to go seven tenths clear of the field, with Oliveira only able to cut that advantage down by a tenth as Bagnaia posted another session-best of 1:29.409s.
A brief red flag period to clear debris on track at Turn 7 from a crash for Bagnaia's teammate Luca Marini interrupted the session, with the sister VR46 rider walking away unscathed from the incident.
Bagnaia remained unchallenged through to the end of the session, though was unable to complete his final lap after running out of fuel at Turn 3.
Oliveira was able to find a bit more laptime late on with a 1:29.719s, but could not advanace on this, while Fabio Quartararo completed the front row despite suffering a late battery issue.
Jorge Navarro secured his career-best Moto2 qualifying result in fourth, and just 0.040s from a maiden front row aboard his Gresini machine, with Alex Marquez brushing off a tumble at Turn 3 to put his Marc VDS Kalex fifth.
Mattia Pasini did leap up to second with a 1:29.922s in the final 10 minutes, but had this lap canceled for exceeding track limits and was demoted to sixth.
Marcel Schrotter put the sole remaining Intact GP machine into seventh, after teammate Xavi Vierge was involved in a collision with Steven Odendaal at Turn 1 in the opening moments.
Vierge was taken to the medical centre where he was diagnosed with a right wrist fracture, and will miss the remainder of the weekend.
Brad Binder headed Lorenzo Baldassarro, who crashed at Turn 4 late on before suffering a technical issue after the flag, and Marini to complete the top 10.
Iker Lecuona – who collided with Miguel Oliveira at Turn 1 in FP3 – was another late faller at Turn 4, and was unable to advance on 14th as a result, while Joan Mir was a mystifying one-second off the pace down in 20th.
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