Jorge Martin smashed the Moto3 Misano lap record to take his eighth pole of the 2018 season, 0.294 seconds ahead of Gabriel Rodrigo in San Marino Grand Prix qualifying.
The damp FP3 pacesetter Nicolo Bulega set the early pace in the 40-minute qualifying session, Sky VR46 rider clocking a 1:43.238s on his KTM.
This was soon beaten by standings leader Marco Bezzecchi by three tenths, though he quickly came under attack from the Leopard duo of Enea Bastianini and Lorenzo Dalla Porta.
Dalla Porta – who will remain with Leopard in 2019 – edged ahead of Bastianini with a 1:42.767s, but Bezzecchi soon returned to top spot with a 1:43.318s lap which put him just two tenths outside of the outright lap record for the Moto3 class.
With just under half an hour remaining, Gabriel Rodrigo eked out a margin of 0.016s to relinquish provisional pole from Bezzecchi, before immediately crashing his RBA KTM under braking for the first corner.
Bezzecchi tried to usurp Rodrigo by utilising fellow VR46 Academy rider Bulega as a reference, but the pair encountered EG 0,0 Honda's Alonso Lopez at the final corner, which wrecked Bezzecchi's pole charge.
Rodrigo's lap remained the benchmark until the closing seconds, when Martin – still recovering from the wrist injury he sustained at Brno – blasted to top spot with a record tour of 1:41.878s.
Making it across the line for a final lap, the Gresini rider went even faster, improving to a 1:41.823s to cement his eighth pole of the season.
Prustel GP's Jakub Kornfeil did put his KTM second on the grid, but had his best lap cancelled for exceeding track limits, which dropped him to ninth and promoted Rodrigo back up to second.
Aron Canet found himself on the final place of the front row as a result of Kornfeil's demotion, with Fabio Di Giannantonio heading Bastianini and Bezzecchi on the second row.
Bulega will line up seventh, with Dalla Porta, Kornfeil and Ayumu Sasaki completing the top 10. Philipp Oettl [24th] was forced to sit out the remainder of the session after suffering a heavy highside at Turn 2 at mid-distance.
