Marc Marquez recovered from an early crash to seal pole position by over a second in the Australian MotoGP qualifying session.
Marquez claimed his fourth successive pole position from wet qualifying sessions, with the track conditions suffering from earlier rainfall and more expected to come during the Q2 shootout for the final pole position around Phillip Island.
On his first push lap, Marquez crashed at Turn 4 to bring out the yellow flag to cause cancellations to most of the field, including both factory Aprilia riders.
The rain returned which made improving on the lap times difficult, with Johann Zarco posting the best time on most riders’ second attempts.
Meanwhile on the spare bike, Marquez returned to the track to set provisional pole before once again relinquishing top spot to Zarco.
However, with one final lap, the Ducati rider proved his dominance in the mixed conditions to set a 1:34.203s to snatch pole position in dominant fashion.
Alex Marquez improved late on to move up into second place but 1.494s off his brother’s best time, while Zarco completed the front row in third.
A late effort from championship leader Jorge Martin saw him head the second row in fourth, while home favourite Jack Miller took fifth and Raul Fernandez sixth.
Pedro Acosta finished seventh, narrowly ahead of eighth-placed Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi in ninth.
Diogo Moreira rounded out the top 10 as Ai Ogura struggled in the wet conditions in 11th and Enea Bastianini five seconds off the Q2 pace in 12th.
Brad Binder missed out on a Q2 spot by over half a second, but was still the closest rider to progressing in 13th, while Iker Lecuona was 14th.
Maverick Vinales took 15th at the flag ahead of Francesco Bagnaia in 16th, as Augusto Fernandez finished in front of both factory Yamahas in 17th.
Alex Rins finished 18th to complete the sixth row of the grid, with Fabio Quartararo 19th and Franco Morbidelli rounded out the standings in 20th.
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