Britain's Bradley Smith has missed out on a second successive Qatar 125GP pole position by one tenth of a second by Aspar Aprilia team-mate Julian Simon.
The Oxfordshire teenager was sitting pretty at the top of the timesheets with five minutes to go but Simon was just able to shade Smith for the pole, even though Smith improves his own time on his last lap.
Today's times are more than a second slower than last year due a rain shower that hit the desert track an hour before the 125GP class was due to leave pitlane.
Smith started with a laptime good enough for third and was never out of the top five. Andrea Iannone was the first man to put in anything like a quick lap and from there was was between the three of them for the pole slot. Nicolas Terol rounds out the front row.
Blusens Aprilia rider Scott Redding ended the session in 11th pace, a little over 1.7s slower than Simon, while Danny Webb is two places behind and two-tenths slower.
Britain's fourth 125GP rider Matt Hoyle finished the session last on the Hajoue bike, some 8.6s off the pace.
