Alex Marquez left it late to clinch pole place for the Malaysia MotoGP weekend after edging out his brother Marc Marquez in qualifying.
Marquez turned the ninth totally different polesitter of the 2026 season by setting a 1:56.493s to say high spot at one in every of his most profitable tracks.
All eyes had been on the Aprilia storage ready to see whether or not Jorge Martin would emerge for qualifying after setting only a handful of lap instances all through follow.
After discussions earlier than the session started with MotoGP medical director Dr. Angel Charte, it was determined that Martin would withdraw from the rest of the weekend resulting from his accidents.
Within the struggle for pole place on observe, 5 riders topped the session at totally different levels – with Alex Marquez popping out combating however finally getting displaced to fifth after some quick laps within the midpart of qualifying.
Nevertheless, after build up for his last lap, the Gresini rider responded to the marker set by his elder brother and snatched pole place by simply 0.070s, his first because the 2025 Catalan GP.
Marc Marquez took second, and towed Pedro Acosta to the road to permit the KTM rider to finish the entrance row in third.
The remaining Aprilia riders had been got rid of the entrance row after exhibiting their playing cards, with Ai Ogura fourth and 0.124s off the pole time and Marco Bezzecchi narrowly behind in fifth.
Fabio Di Giannantonio accomplished the second row in sixth, with Enea Bastianini taking seventh and Johann Zarco progressing from Q2 to eighth.
Franco Morbidelli took the chequered flag to qualify ninth, whereas Francesco Bagnaia additionally got here by way of Q1 to finish the highest 10.
Joan Mir certified eleventh forward of Maverick Vinales, who accomplished the fourth row in twelfth.
Luca Marini missed out on progressing to Q2 by simply over a tenth of a second, which noticed him head the fifth row in thirteenth alongside Diogo Moreira in 14th and Brad Binder in fifteenth.
Jack Miller certified sixteenth and was joined on the sixth row by the manufacturing facility Yamaha pair, with Alex Rins in seventeenth outqualifying 18th-placed Fabio Quartararo.
The 2 substitute riders rounded out the standings, with Iker Lecuona persevering with to deputise for Fermin Aldeguer in nineteenth, and Augusto Fernandez in for Toprak Razgatlioglu to the tip of the season in twentieth.
