Martin beats Marquez to pole, Bagnaia leads title rivals in third

The lap record at Phillip Island has belonged to three-time MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo since 2013, but was finally toppled on Saturday when Martin fired in a 1m27.767s to tally up his third pole of the campaign.

Having never ridden around Phillip Island on a MotoGP bike prior to this weekend, Martin was 0.013 seconds ahead of Marquez as Bagnaia completed the top three ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and championship leader Fabio Quartararo to go into Sunday’s race as the fastest title challenger.

The dry Q2 session began with a frantic series of laps as three Ducati riders took turns setting the pace.

Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia set the benchmark time of 1m28.206s, before Marco Bezzecchi – a track rookie on a MotoGP bike like Martin – edged ahead on his VR46-run Desmosedici with a 1m28.185s.

Martin was quick to shuffle back the pair of them with a 1m28.112s set inside the first four minutes of the 15-minute Q2.

Bagnaia would conclude the first runs of the session with a 1m28.054s to lay down the gauntlet, with Martin 0.058s behind in second.

Across the final laps in the dying stages, session-best sectors were being put in across the timing screens.

But it was a 1m27.767s from Martin with two minutes to go that would win the day, the Pramac rider fending off a charge from Marquez on the Honda by 0.013s for the seventh pole of his MotoGP career.

Marquez offered another glowing sign that his recovery is going in the right direction, as he managed to save a big front-end moment going through the Turn 10 hairpin in the early stages of Q2.

Finding a slipstream from Bagnaia on his final flying lap, Marquez slots in between Martin and the factory Ducati rider for his second front row start in four races.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was on course to put in a lap that would challenge for the front row in the latter stages as he slotted in behind team-mate Maverick Vinales.

But Espargaro suffered a massive head shake as he blasted out of the final corner onto the pit straight and had to settle for fourth with a 1m27.957s.

That put him 0.016s clear of Quartararo on the factory Yamaha, with Johann Zarco rounding out row two on the sister Pramac Ducati having come through Q1 with Suzuki’s Alex Rins.

Luca Marini heads row three on his VR46 Ducati ahead of home hero Jack Miller – who had Turn 4 at Phillip Island renamed in his honour earlier today – on…