Fabio Quartararo shattered the lap record to snatch Australian MotoGP pole position away from Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi.
The Yamaha rider stunned the field as he stole pole in the final seconds of the session, with his lap time of 1:26.465 becoming the new all-time lap record of the Phillip Island circuit.
Alex Marquez brought out the first yellow flags of the session after sliding out at Turn 4, but he was able to rejoin the session.
Bezzecchi was irate after missing out on setting a good first run, with the Aprilia rider feeling he was impeded by fellow VR46 academy riders Francesco Bagnaia and Luca Marini. The Ducati rider was later investigated for the incident.
Marquez suffered his second crash of he session at Turn 1 in a high-speed incident, bringing out the yellow flags to disrupt some of the final laps.
As the session reached its end, Quartararo snuck through and headed to the top of the timesheets by 0.031s.
The Frenchman’s fifth pole of the season demoted Bezzecchi to second place, with the Italian denied a chance of taking a second successive pole position.
Home favourite Jack Miller completed the front row with his final qualifying run, 0.243s behind Quartararo’s best time.
Raul Fernandez qualified in fourth to head the second row of the grid, while Pedro Acosta completed the top five.
The qualifying session marked the first time in 98 grands prix that Ducati did not feature on the front row. The Gresini pair of Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer led the manufacturer’s charge in sixth and seventh, respectively.
Pol Espargaro set an identical lap time to Aldeguer in eighth, while Marini was a further tenth behind in ninth.
Fabio Di Giannantonio rounded out the top 10 ahead of Bagnaia on the factory Ducati. Alex Rins completed the fourth row in 12th.
Brad Binder missed out on a Q2 spot by 0.03s and qualified in 13th, but was under investigation for two separate incidents from the session.
The first incident involved Lorenzo Savadori crashing while attempting to avoid the slow-moving KTM, while the second incident occurred when Binder impeded Johann Zarco during his final qualifying run.
Zarco and Joan Mir joined the South African on the fifth row of the grid, with the Spaniard edging out the satellite Honda rider for 14th. Miguel Oliveira headed the sixth row by qualifying in 16th, with Franco Morbidelli and Ai Ogura joining the Portuguese rider.
Lorenzo Savadori did not rejoin the session following his crash and ended the session in 19th. Enea Bastianini lined up on the final row of the grid in 20th, ahead of rookie Somkiat Chantra in 21st.
Michele Pirro rounded out the order in 22nd as he deputised for the injured Marc Marquez.
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