The 125cc Championship leader secured his 11th pole position of the season with the top time in qualifying for the Iveco Australian Grand Prix. Sandro Cortese, Pol Espargaró and Nico Terol will all be on the front row too for Sunday’s race.

Marc Márquez’s 11th pole position of the season came at Phillip Island on Saturday as the Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider secured top spot on the starting grid for Sunday’s race for the fourth consecutive round. The 17 year-old, who leads the Championship by three points ahead of Nico Terol going into this round, topped the timesheet by an impressive 0.616s with a best lap of 1’38.236 and became the first rider to achieve 11 poles in a single season in the 125cc class.

Following him onto the front row was team-mate Sandro Cortese, with the Avant Mitsubishi Ajo rider slotting in ahead of Pol Espargaró (Tuenti Racing), who was the final rider under the 1’39” barrier with a time of 1’38.991. Bancaja Aspar rider Terol secured the fourth and final position on the front line and was also the final rider to get within a second of Márquez’s time.

Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar), who finished second in the 125cc race at Phillip Island last season, will head up the second row after qualifying in fifth, with Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX), Efrén Vázquez (Tuenti Racing) and Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany) accompanying him. British riders Danny Webb (Andalucia Cajasol) and Danny Kent (Lambretta Reparto Corse) qualified in 11th and 23rd positions respectively.

There were crashes during the session for Khairuddin Zulfahmi (AirAsia - Sepang International Circuit Team), Louis Rossi (CBC Corse) and wild card Levi Day (Racetrix).