Marc Marquez dominated a delayed, rain-hit MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying for his seventh pole of the season despite a late crash.
Heavy rain towards the end of FP4 carried over to the start of qualifying, and led to an 80-minute delay, with Marquez asserting his dominance early on in Q2 and brushed off a tumble to take pole by almost six tenths of a second.
Marquez came out of the blocks at the start of Q2 with a 2:13.641s, with the Honda rider managing to go over a second clear of the field with his follow-up effort of 2:12.161s.
Pramac duo Jack Miller and Danilo Petrucci traded second spot, though were shoved off of the provisional front row by Ducati stablemate Andrea Dovizioso with a 2:!3.1s, before Suzuki's Andrea Iannone went almost instantly a tenth quicker.
Just seconds before, Marquez fell off at Turn 4. The Honda rider was unscathed and his pole time remained intact despite the crash.
Johann Zarco made a late charge for second for his third-successive front row, the Tech3 rider 0.548 seconds adrift of Marquez, while Valentino Rossi completed the front row a further three tenths behind.
Dovizioso put Marquez's pole time under some threat on his final effort, the Ducati man going through the first sector fastest of all and only a few tenths down on the Honda's rider's best sector two time.
However, last year's Sepang winner crashed at Turn 9 and was left fifth behind Iannone and ahead of Miller, who remained top Pramac runner with Petrucci seventh.
Friday pacesetter Alex Rins will start from eighth on the sister Suzuki ahead of Q1 graduate Alvaro Bautista [Nieto] and the second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa.
Maverick Vinales topped FP3 this morning, but his day turned sour in FP4 when a heavy crash left him with just one Yamaha at his disposal for qualifying.
Struggling in the wet, Vinales will start from 11th, with the second Q1 graduate Alex Espargaro [Aprilia] completing the top 12 after crashing early in Q2.
Scott Redding registered his best qualifying result of the year after guiding the sister factory Aprilia to 13th, though almost half a second from the Q2 progression places.
Jorge Lorenzo's Ducati stand-in Michele Pirro was inside the top two as the session reached its dying stages, but a mistake on his final lap meant he was unable to stop himself being pushed back to 14th ahead of Avintia's Xavier Simeon, whose 15th is his best qualifying result of his rookie campaign.
KTM's Bradley Smith was the pacesetter midway through Q1, but a crash at Turn 11 halted his charge and he was left in 17th behind teammate Pol Espargaro, while fellow faller Tom Luthi was 18th on his Marc VDS Honda.
Home hero Hafizh Syahrin [Tech3] will line up 23rd in a depleted field, after Jordi Torres was left with a hand injury in a crash at the end of FP4.
Discussion about this post