Marc Marquez stormed to pole position for the Czech GP at Brno by over 2.5 seconds from Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller in a session held in mixed conditions.
Marquez, along with several over riders including Miller, switched to slicks all round with just a few minutes remaining in the session as the track dried up.
The Spaniard went fastest on the second of his slick laps, smashing provisional pole-man Johann Zarco’s time by a full second with a 2:04.165 to move to the top of the times, despite rain starting to fall in the final sector.
Marquezx wasn’t finished though, going even faster on his next lap as he posted a 2:02.753 to head Miller’s best effort by 2.524.
The Aussie racer looked set to improve on his final tour, but crashed out at the final corner as he lost the front of his GP19 Ducati.
His previous time was still quick enough for second alongside Marquez though, with the front row being completed by Zarco, who secures KTM’s best ever qualifying result with third on the front row, having come through Q1.
The KTM pair of Zarco and Pol Espargaro dominated the Q1 session, the Frenchman leading his team-mate by just 0.020 with a late flyer on a constantly evolving track surface.
The circuit had begun to dry towards the end of FP4, but despite an ever growing dry-line wets were the order of the day for the Q1 runners.
The KTM’s came under pressure from the likes of Takaaki Nakagami and Francesco Bagnaia as the clock ticked down, but ultimately came just a couple-of-tenths short of usurping the Austrian bikes from the head of the timesheets, meaning they both progressed to Q2.
Espargaro backed up his team-mate in Q2, taking fifth on the grid just behind the factory Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso, who managed to improve late on despite not making the move to dry tyres for his final run like Zarco and Esparagro.
Alex Rins managed the sixth quickest time for Suzuki ahead of Valentino Rossi in seventh, out-qualifying team-mate Maverick Vinales who could only set the ninth fastest time, as well as Danilo Petrucci on the second of the factory Ducati machines in eighth.
Fabio Quartararo rounded out the top ten for Petronas SRT Yamaha- albeit 3.895 in arrears of Marquez’s pole time- just ahead of Cal Crutchlow’s Honda and the second SRT M1 of Franco Morbidelli.
Honda replacement rider Stefan Bradl- who takes the place of the injured Jorge Lorenzo this weekend- will start down in 17th, just behind Suzuki wild-card Sylvain Guintoli who secured 15th on the grid.
