The China Mail - Quartararo grabs pole at Australian MotoGP as Alex Marquez crashes

In chilly conditions but with the track dry after early rain, the French Yamaha rider surged round the waterfront circuit with a flying lap at the death of 1min 26.465sec.

It was enough to topple Bezzecchi by just 0.031sec, after the Aprilia rider had clocked 1:26.492 on Friday to smash Jorge Martin's previous best at Phillip Island set in 2023.

The sizzling pace handed Quartararo his fifth pole of the year and first since the Dutch MotoGP in June.

"Really nice. It was a long time since since Assen," he said.

"Today is a really special one because I didn't feel ready to make really a 26.4. The goal was to make 26.7 more or less. So I'm super happy."

His exploits came in the absence of newly-crowned world champion Marc Marquez, who needed shoulder surgery after Bezzecchi slammed into him in Indonesia a fortnight ago.

Bezzecchi must serve a double long lap penalty -- essentially five-to-six seconds -- on Sunday for causing the incident, but is free to race as usual in Saturday's sprint showdown.

Australia's Jack Miller, also on a Yamaha, came third to secure his first front row since Japan in 2023 with Alex Marquez sixth after two crashes as he looks to wrap up second-place in the world championship.

Spain's Marquez has an 88-point lead over two-time world champion Francesco Bagnaia in the battle to clinch second in the standings with four rounds left of the 22-stop season.

He can do so by finishing the weekend 111 points clear of his Italian Ducati rival, who will start from 11th.

Raul Fernandez, on an Aprilia, was fourth and KTM's Pedro Acosta fifth.

Spanish rookie Fermin Aldeguer, who won the MotoGP in Indonesia, will start from seventh.

Australia has only hosted one sprint race before, with the 2023 event called off an hour before it was due to start with the track soaked and wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour.

More high winds are expected this weekend and some riders had been pushing for the main MotoGP to be raced on Saturday and the sprint on Sunday.

The sport's chiefs rejected this, but have pushed back the grand prix by an hour on Sunday to 3:00 pm (0400 GMT) in a bid to avoid the worst of the weather.

T.Wu--ThChM