Source: Supplied.

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez took pole position at the Pramac Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix with an incredible display of riding. In near perfect conditions at Phillip Island the Spaniard set a 1m28.364s to clearly show his rivals he is back to full fitness after breaking a bone in his left hand before the Japanese GP.

No one had an answer to the reigning MotoGP World Champion’s one-lap pace, despite it being almost half a second slower than Jorge Lorenzo’s 2013 pole record of 1m27.899s. Marquez, after finishing second in FP1 on Friday, has topped every session since and his race pace looks ominous.

Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone (+0.316s) also made use of a two-stop strategy and the extra soft option tyre available to him to record only his third front row start of the season. The Italian set an identical time to Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo, but will start from second due to count back.

Lorenzo (+0.316s) completes the front row in third, making it 13 front row starts this year. It is actually his worst qualifying performance since his eighth in Assen as Lorenzo also made use of a two-stop strategy.

However the two-time MotoGP champion will take heart from the fact the man who is leading him in the title standing by 18 points, Valentino Rossi, will be forced to start from seventh. Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa (+0.348s) looked like he would be on the front row as the clock ticked down in Q2, but will instead have to start from the front of the second row in fourth.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow (+0.548s) followed up his excellent third place overall in practice with fifth, his best Qualifying result since he started the Indianapolis GP from the same position and it sees him as the leading Satellite rider.

Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Viñales (+0.568s) continued his excellent weekend and will start from sixth, just 0.02s behind Crutchlow. It was his best Qualifying performance since his second at the Catalan GP as the Spaniard made use of the sweet handling of his GSX-RR around the fast and flowing Phillip Island circuit.

Championship leader Valentino Rossi’s recent good run in qualifying came to an end as he put in his worst performance since he claimed eighth at Indianapolis. The ‘Doctor’ improved his time from Practice by over seven-tenths, but it was only good enough for seventh and sees the Doctor start the race from the head of the third row.

Viñales’ teammate Aleix Espargaro will start the race from eighth after making it through from Q1 alongside his brother Pol, who qualified in ninth. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) was 10th fastest, with Brits Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) and Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) completing the fourth row.

Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) will start from 14th as the leading Open class rider ahead of local hero Jack Miller in 15th (LCR Honda) and Eugene Laverty (Aspar MotoGP Team) in 16th. Nicky Hayden (Aspar MotoGP Team) celebrated the announcement he will be inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame at Valencia by qualifying in 20th.

AB Motoracing Honda’s Anthony West will start out from 23rd on the grid in his return to racing, while countryman Damian Cudlin (E-Motion IodaRacing Team) will complete the grid in 25th on the final row.

Paginas Amarillas HP40’s Alex Rins took advantage of ideal conditions at the historic Phillip Island circuit to set a 1m32.523s to claim his 16th career GP pole position. The Spaniard had ended Practice on top of the overall timesheets and carried that form into Qualifying to finish 0.214s ahead of Axel Pons on the AGR Team Kalex and Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes.

Australian Josh Hook qualified 24th on the Technomag Racing Interwetten Kalex, in what is his second Moto2 appearance in place of the injured team regular Dominique Aegerter.

Scotsman John McPhee took his first ever Moto3 pole position ahead of Miguel Oliveira and Efren Vazquez after Danny Kent was hit with penalty. SAXOPRINT RTG’s McPhee claimed pole position after championship leader Kent was hit with a six-place grid penalty for riding slowly on the racing line in FP3 – he will have to start from seventh.

Moto3 regular Remy Gardner was best of the Australians in 26th overall on the grid, while wildcards Olly Simpson and Matt Barton will round out the field in 35th and 36th positions respectively.

Click here for detailed results