Johann Zarco obliterated Jorge Lorenzo's 10-year-old Qatar lap record of 1:53.927s to take the first pole position of the 2018 MotoGP season, ahead of Marc Marquez and Danilo Petrucci.
The opening gambits were a frantic affair, with reigning champion Marquez firing in a 1:54.411s to take over top spot, before bettering it to a 1:54.368s.
His second lap kept the Honda rider top for all of a few seconds as Andrea Dovizoso edged close to the lap record with a 1:54.074s on his Ducati.
The timing screen was ablaze with session-best sectors from a number of riders, with Marquez and Zarco – who crashed in FP4 – almost half a second clear of the rest at one stage.
Still up as he entered the final sector, Zarco crossed the line to post a 1:53.680s to go two-tenths clear of Marquez, with Petrucci a further 0.005s adrift to complete the front row as top Ducati runner.
Cal Crutchlow went 0.002s quicker than Dovizioso to put his LCR Honda fourth, while Suzuki's Alex Rins recovered from 12th to sixth with his final effort of 1:54.339s.
Dani Pedrosa held a place on the front briefly in Q2, but was unable to do better than seventh, with Valentino Rossi first of the factory Yamahas in eighth, ahead of early pacesetter Lorenzo.
Q1 graduate Jack Miller set an impressive opening lap on the medium rear tyre to go fourth fastest, but could only manage 10th on his soft tyre run.
Andrea Iannone and Maverick Vinales, who also came through Q1, rounded out the top 12.
Aleix Espargaro admitted after Friday's running that he was struggling for one-lap pace on the Aprilia, and missed the Q2 cut by half a second in 13th, only narrowly beating reigning Moto2 champion Franco Morbidelli on the Marc VDS Honda.
Morbidelli's fellow rookie Hafizh Syahrin put his Tech3 Yamaha 15th after stealing a tow from 16th-placed Tito Rabat on the Avintia Ducati.
Scott Redding will start his first race in Aprilia colours from 17th, the Briton heading Tom Luthi and Karel Abraham.
Mechanical issues for KTM duo Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro left them 20th and 22nd, with Alvaro Bautista sandwiched between them, and Takaaki Nakagami – who crashed in FP4 along with Espargaro – and Xavier Simeon behind.
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