Marc Marquez's “unexpected” pole, Alex “on clean part”, Fabio “forgot front-row feeling”

Marc Marquez wrestled an ‘unexpected’ fourth pole position of the season away from younger brother Alex during a record-breaking Qualifying 2 at the Qatar MotoGP.

The 15-minute showdown at Lusail was dominated by the Marquez brothers, with pole position swinging back and forth between the Spaniards.

Only a surprise charge from Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo interrupted their family duel, briefly placing the Frenchman on provisional pole.

Alex Marquez quickly reclaimed the top spot aboard his Gresini Ducati GP24, laying down a blistering penultimate lap.

But as the chequered flag waved, Marc found a crucial tow behind Franco Morbidelli, shaving off just enough time to edge ahead by 0.101s and snatch pole.

“I already understood on the first tyre Alex was super fast. He was riding in a very good way,” Marc said.

After Marc followed Alex on the opening run, the Marquez brothers left the pits together for their final run. But Marc held back, caught in a crowded field of riders all jostling for slipstreams.

“With the second tyre we were playing out there with a lot of riders, but I was the one that had the pole position [at that time], so there was no meaning for me to push and I just waited to be the last of the group,” Marquez explained.

“My last lap was not a clean lap, but it was enough to be on a pole position - an unexpected pole position here in Qatar.”

But Alex may yet have the last laugh due to a different sort of ‘clean’, believing there is less dust on his part of the grid.

“I have the clean part! I think third and second position is the best because it's more clean, so we'll see,” said the world championship leader.

“It was not easy this afternoon, in free practice I crashed on the second lap. A really strange crash and I was not feeling really good.

“But later on I was able to forget that, push in qualifying and make two really good time attacks. Just in the last lap I maybe pushed a little bit too much and was not able to improve.

“But anyway I'm really happy to be second.”

Also delighted was Yamaha’s Quartararo, who claimed his first front row since the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix.

“To be honest, I forget the feeling of being on the front row!” grinned Quartararo. “I think it's going to help us a lot during the races.

“Our pace is not super great, but I think that starting already from third position will help us quite a lot.”

Quartararo had asked his team to focus only on normal set-up changes, rather than any back-to-back data gathering, this weekend to try and unlock all the performance available from the M1.

Alex Marquez will start this evening Sprint with a one point lead over Marc.

Third in the world championship Francesco Bagnaia, winner after team-mate Marc crashed from the lead in COTA, fell during qualifying and will start only 11th – a major blow to his hopes of reeling in the Marquez brothers in the early title fight.