Image: Supplied.

A penalty applied to Marc Marquez following qualifying at Sepang will see the Repsol Honda rider start from seventh this afternoon at the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Marquez clinched his 80th pole position on Saturday, however an incident involving Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone in Q2 resulted in the grid demotion.

According to the MotoGP stewards panel, Marquez was penalised for ‘riding in an irresponsible manner being slow on the racing line and disturbing another rider’. The Spanish seven-time world champion was adamant he didn’t see Iannone, but accepted the penalty.

“I think that being able to quickly adapt to sudden changes in track conditions is one of my strong points,” Marquez said. “Today I took advantage of that, even if honestly it wasn’t easy. It was the first time this weekend we rode in the wet and we even crashed.

“But the feeling was there and we achieved the pole position, which is a good feeling even if we’ll ultimately start from the third row. The most important thing is that we made a huge step forward with the set-up in dry conditions and now I think we’re competitive.

“I also adapted my riding style a bit and now we’re closer to the faster guys, who here are [Andrea] Dovizioso [Maverick] and Vinales. Now we’ll see which conditions we’ll have tomorrow, then we’ll try and make a good start and if possible we’ll fight for the podium.”

Marquez will hold onto his pole record even though he’s been stripped of the starting advantage, which in turn results in Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Johann Zarco leading the field away in Malaysia. It has also bumped Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing) up to P5 on the grid.