Fabio Quartararo took a sensational pole position for his Petronas SRT squad’s home event at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia by just over a tenth from Maverick Vinales.
Quartararo sat second after the first runs of Q2, just 0.087 behind Vinales but crucially ahead of team-mate Franco Morbidelli-who has looked stronger for the majority of the weekend so far.
The Frenchman suffered frustration in the form of recently crowned world champion Marc Marquez ahead of his final run though, the Honda man sitting in the Yamaha’s wheel tracks as he looked for a tow.
Morbidelli did his best to slow down, but Marquez was defiant and refused to overtake, forcing Quartararo to begin his penultimate flyer with Marquez right on his rear wheel.
The pair’s tyres had likely cooled while cruising around ahead of the lap, and as a result Marquez was floored by a huge high-side at Turn 2 that threw him off the side of the track and out of qualifying.
Morbidelli meanwhile had shot to the top on his final effort with a new lap record of 1:58.432, before Vinales snatched provisional pole seconds later with his own final flyer just 0.026 faster.
Quartararo saved his best until last though, banging in a scintillating 1:58.303 to re-take the Sepang MotoGP lap record and secure his fifth pole of the season at his team’s home race by 0.103, with the entire front row of Yamaha’s covered by just 0.129.
Best of the rest meanwhile was Jack Miller’s Pramac-run Ducati GP19, the Aussie managing a best time 0.422 down on Quartararo’s pole benchmark but an impressive 0.246 quicker than fifth placed Cal Crutchlow.
The LCR Honda rider was able to participate in the pole shootout courtesy of topping the preceding Q1 session by just over a tenth from Danilo Petrucci.
The Brit looked somewhat unlikely to make it through, but managed to find time on his final do-or-die attempt to deny Joan Mir a place in the top 12, meaning the Suzuki man will start 13th ahead of Aleix Espargaro-who came just 0.099 away from progressing at Petrucci’s expense.
Valentino Rossi was a solid sixth in Q2-albeit over half-a-second down on his fellow M1 pilots-ahead of Alex Rins on the second GSX-RR, who pipped Petrucci to seventh by just 0.007.
Johann Zarco managed to breach the top ten on LCR’s 2018-spec Honda in only his second event with the outfit in ninth-just 0.836 off Quartararo’s pole time-heading Andrea Dovizioso in a disappointing tenth.
Marquez was ultimately shuffled way back to 11th owing to him not making it out for a final fast run, although he still managed to remain ahead of Francesco Bagnaia on the second of the Pramac Ducati’s.
Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile could only manage a lowly 18th on the grid, with his best time of 2:00.478 putting him a sobering 1.3 seconds down on Zarco’s best Q2 effort, further illustrating the sheer extent of the three-time premier class champions struggles.
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