Andrea Dovizioso took a shock pole ahead of tomorrow’s MotoGP race at Sepang as the track dried up after an earlier downpour.
The Ducati Team rider set himself a banker lap just five minutes into the session, which somehow was unable to be beaten by anyone else.
Following a deluge earlier in the day during Moto3 qualifying, the MotoGP machines were late getting out for FP4 and subsequently for qualifying. After a tough FP3, Cal Crutchlow and Loris Baz were the two who made it through to Q2.
As the second 15 minute session got underway, the track just seemed to be at the point of almost drying and greasy.
The first rider to hit the top of the timesheets was Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, but just a minute later he lost out to team-mate Valentino Rossi. Moments later Dovizioso came into play, powering his Ducati to P1 with a lap of 2’11.511.
Rossi and Lorenzo were both able to better their times but didn’t move places, and then with seven minutes to go Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez put a decent one in and stole second, although he wasn’t able to move ahead of Dovizioso.
Crutchlow was also on a fast one aboard the LCR Honda, and the Brit looked like he could be about to jump up to the front row when he crashed out at Turn 11. He managed to pick up the bike, which was looking a little bit second hand, and get back on.
Lorenzo and Rossi both set faster laps again but were still unable to topple Dovizioso, who went faster again just as the flag fell to post a time of 2’11.485.
No-one was able to better him, although Rossi went faster to move ahead of Lorenzo into second, with his team-mate settling for third.
Marquez heads the fourth row, and will be joined by Crutchlow, who somehow managed to better his time and grab fifth on the grid with a banzai lap after he re-joined following the crash.
The second factory Ducati of Andrea Iannone will start from sixth ahead of the Suzuki Ecstar pairing of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales in seventh and eighth respectively.
Alvaro Bautista’s Aprilia will start from ninth with Baz 10th on his Avintia Racing Ducati, Po Espargaro 11th on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 and Hector Barbera 12 on the second Avintia machine.
