Martin out of Sepang MotoGP weekend, Alex Marquez on pole
Alex Marquez took pole position for MotoGP's Malaysian Grand Prix and the sprint, as title hopeful Jorge Martin withdrew from the Sepang weekend.
Martin, who fractured his wrist a week ago at Phillip Island, did three runs totalling eight laps in the 30-minute practice session before qualifying, and had to concede defeat in terms of continuing with the weekend.
"His feeling was better, to be honest, compared with yesterday, but he was not able to force in the braking," Aprilia team manager Paolo Bonora told MotoGP.com.
"The plan is to come back to Spain as soon as possible and to push on the recovery and to do his best to recover the situation. Coming back to Spain immediately, and then we check all together, during all the days, the situation, how it is improving, and we focus to have him in Qatar."
With Martin now consigned to a non-score at Sepang, points leader Marc Marquez was close to maximising his qualifying, ultimately just 0.070s short of beating his brother.
Alex Marquez had been the leader after the initial Q2 runs already, but was shuffled down to fifth by the end of the session - only to respond with a 1m56.493s that snatched pole from Marc.
Pedro Acosta on the KTM will join the pair on the front row, having followed the elder Marquez very closely on both Q2 runs.
Aprilia pair Ai Ogura and Marco Bezzecchi completed a top five covered by just 0.175s, with Fabio Di Giannantonio in sixth another 0.174s back from Bezzecchi.
Q1 pace-setter Johann Zarco was limited to just one Q2 run but used Di Giannantonio as reference and so helped himself to eighth place, slotting in on row three between Enea Bastianini and Franco Morbidelli.
Pecco Bagnaia, another Q1 graduate, ran 'off-sequence' in Q2 - doing his sole run mid-session, with no riders around him.
After setting what proved to be his fastest lap he went off at Turn 1 and broke the windscreen in anger with his fist - though would have anyway been unlikely to improve.
He placed 10th, ahead of Joan Mir and the injury-limited Maverick Vinales, who could not match his laptime from Friday.
Honda riders Luca Marini and Diogo Moreira trailed stablemate Zarco by three and four tenths respectively in Q1, so were short of advancing into Q2 - while the rest of the field was never really in the mix.
This included Gresini's Fermin Aldeguer stand-in Iker Lecuona, who has found Sepang the most difficult so far of the tracks he's ridden this season as a MotoGP replacement rider.
Qualifying results
1 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) 1m56.493s
2 Marc Marquez (Ducati) +0.070s
3 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +0.084s
4 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.124s
5 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +0.175s
6 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +0.349s
7 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +0.477s
8 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +0.523s
9 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +0.775s
10 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +0.794s
11 Joan Mir (Honda) +0.850s
12 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) +1.244s
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13 Luca Marini (Honda) +0.071s to Q2
14 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +0.181s
15 Brad Binder (KTM) +0.575s
16 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +0.596s
17 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +0.603s
18 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +0.667s
19 Iker Lecuona (Gresini Ducati) +0.904s
20 Augusto Fernandez (Pramac Yamaha) +1.303s
