Raul Fernandez stormed to pole position for the first time in his MotoGP career as he took command of qualifying at Mandalika.
Fernandez was one of the riders to beat going into qualifying and lived up to the expectations, setting a 1:28.852s lap time to claim the first pole of his premier class career after five years.
There was a flurry of early crashes in Q1 as riders looked to set competitive lap times, with Johann Zarco going down on his first flying effort and then again for a second time in tandem with Jack Miller – while Ai Ogura and Enea Bastianini also crashed in the 15 minute session.
Diogo Moreira also crashed at the end of Q1 and brought out the yellow flag to disrupt the end of the session, which saw Fermin Aldeguer and Ai Ogura progress to the pole position shootout.
The amount of crashes fired a warning to those pushing on fast laps in Q2 that they were in danger of pushing over the limit to set their best lap time.
Fernandez, however, had perfect track position to push to the limit and went to the top of the timesheets, where he would remain for the remainder of the session to clinch his first MotoGP pole.
Marco Bezzecchi took second place, 0.109s off Fernandez’s best time and was crucially the only one of the three main title contenders on the front row of the grid.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was top Ducati for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 team at its title sponsor’s home race and completed the front row in third.
Marc Marquez got a tow from title rival Jorge Martin, and while it was enough to start ahead of the Aprilia rider, neither contender got onto the front row – with Marquez fourth, Martin fifth and Aldeguer sixth despite a fourth crash of the weekend.
Ogura was seventh after his progression from Q1, joined on the third row by eighth-placed Pedro Acosta and ninth-placed Alex Marquez. Francesco Bagnaia completed the top 10 and led the fourth row over Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo in 11th and 12th respectively.
Alex Rins missed out on a Q2 spot and headed the fifth row as a result in 13th ahead of Bastianini and Luca Marini. Brad Binder qualified 16th, sharing a row with Miller in 17th and Maverick Vinales in 18th.
Meanwhile, Toprak Razgatlioglu took 19th despite a crash that dislocated his shoulder in the final practice session. Razgatlioglu finished ahead of both LCR Honda riders, with Zarco taking 20th and Moreira 21st.
Aleix Espargaro acted as a stand-in rider for Joan Mir and completed the standings in 22nd.
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