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Phillip Island - World championship leader Marc Marquez snatched pole position and left title rival Andrea Dovizioso in his wake in the final seconds of qualifying on Saturday for the Australian MotoGP.
Triple world champion Marquez grabbed his 44th pole in his 88th MotoGP with a best lap time of one minute 28.386 seconds at Phillip Island, while Ducati's Dovizioso struggled to 11th fastest and will start Sunday's race from the fourth row.
The Spanish Honda rider, who leads Dovizioso by 11 points with three rounds left, will start on the inside of the grid, alongside his compatriot Maverick Vinales and French Yamaha racer Johann Zarco.
Dovizioso will be hoping Marquez continues to have his impetuous moments around the fast, sweeping Phillip Island track.
Marquez crashed out of last year's race while leading and already crowned world champion. He also came off his Honda bike during the 2014 race.
"We will see the feeling with the bike, it is important at the start that I warm the tyres well and we will see which rear tyres we will choose," Marquez said.
"The race is very long, 27 laps, the tyres can drop, I will just try to start well and get the feel of the bike.
"The most important thing is to finish on the podium and especially in front of Dovi (Dovizioso).
"It's important to start ahead of Dovi, but at Motegi he started from ninth and he was behind me already by lap four."
Zarco, who snatched pole position at Motegi last weekend, looked set to repeat the feat when he hit the front before Vinales and Marquez in turn claimed the best lap time in the final moments of qualifying.
"We want to push from the beginning of the race so off the front is a good place to be," Vinales said.
"We hope for a dry race, we know in the wet we are not at the level of the others."
Andrea Iannone (Suzuki), Australian Jack Miller (Honda) and Pol Espargaro (KTM) will start off the second row of the grid.
Six-time race winner Valentino Rossi will join Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Briton Bradley Smith (KTM) on the third row.
Dovizioso, who beat Marquez in a thrilling final lap duel in Japan last weekend, struggled in qualifying and will start off the fourth row along with last year's race winner Cal Crutchlow and Dani Pedrosa.
"The crash in practice conditioned my qualifying session a bit," Dovizioso said.
"We could surely have gone quicker, but unfortunately I wasn't able to ride as well as yesterday and so we start down the grid.
"A real pity, but that's the way it went and now we have only to think about tomorrow to try and work out where we can improve."
Rossi and Smith advanced to the second qualifying session by finishing in the top two positions in the first session, for riders whose practice times were outside the top ten.
Rossi posted a best 1:29.346 lap time on his Yamaha, 0.359secs ahead of Smith on a KTM.
Triple world MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo, who injured his ankle in a tumble during third free practice, was sixth on his Ducati to push him down to 16th on Sunday's race grid.
"It was a bad crash and I rolled over a number of times in the gravel," Lorenzo said.
"I immediately thought I had broken something, but luckily the X-ray ruled out any fractures and only confirmed a sprained left ankle, which hurts a lot."
Leading grid positions for the Australian Grand Prix after qualifying on Saturday:
MotoGP
1st row
1. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) 1:28.386, 2. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) 1:28.719, 3. Johann Zarco (FRA/Yamaha) 1:28.744
2nd row
4. Andrea Iannone (ITA/Suzuki) 1:28.937, 5. Jack Miller (AUS/Honda) 1:28.964, 6. Pol Espargaro (ESP/KTM) 1:29.030
3rd row
7. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) 1:29.203, 8. Aleix Espargaro (ESP/Aprilia) 1:29.271, 9. Bradley Smith (GBR/KTM) 1:29.321
4th row
10. Cal Crutchlow (GBR/Honda) 1:29.429, 11. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Ducati) 1:29.496, 12. Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda)1:29.546
Moto2
1st row
1. Mattia Pasini (ITA/Kalex) 1:33.300, 2. Marcel Schrotter (GER/Suter) 1:33.308, 3. Miguel Oliveira (POR/KTM) 1:33.422
2nd row
4. Brad Binder (RSA/KTM) 1:33.453, 5. Franco Morbidelli (ITA/Kalex) 1:33.495, 6. Alex Marquez (ESP/Kalex) 1:33.749
3rd row
7. Takaaki Nakagami (JPN/Honda) 1:33.921, 8. Dominique Aegerter (SUI/Suter) 1:33.944, 9. Jesko Raffin (SUI/Kalex) 1:33.982
Moto3
1st row
1. Jorge Martin (ESP/Honda) 1:37.030, 2. Gabriel Rodrigo (ARG/KTM) 1:37.248, 3. Joan Mir (ESP/Honda) 1:37.411
2nd row
4. Juanfran Guevara (ESP/KTM) 1:37.544, 5. Romano Fenati (ITA/Honda) 1:37.680, 6. Jules Danilo (FRA/Honda) 1:37.710
3rd row
7. Manuel Pagliani (ITA/Mahindra) 1:37.713, 8. Aron Canet (ESP/Honda) 1:37.743, 9. Enea Bastianini (ITA/Honda) 1:37.820
