Absolute masterclass weather performance, right when it counts. As Autosport reports, Marc Marquez of the Ducati Team bounced back from a disastrous start to claim pole position at the Australian Grand Prix, absolutely destroying the competition in treacherous wet conditions.
The session started as a proper headache. Overnight showers left the track damp, and a fresh wave of rain arrived right as Qualifying 2 got underway. Marc Marquez became the first casualty of the worsening conditions, binning his factory Ducati at Turn 4 just three minutes in without a single lap time recorded. But the nine-time world champion hustled his hobbled machine back to the paddock through the service lane, hopped onto his second bike, and charged straight back out.
On his very first flying lap, the Spaniard seized control by going fastest, beating early pacesetter Johann Zarco of LCR Honda by 0.087s. As the clock wound down, Zarco punched in a blistering 1m35.706s to grab the top spot back. But Marc Marquez had an extra gear waiting, dropping a stunning 1m34.203s on his final lap to take his fourth pole of the season by a massive margin of 1.493s.
Behind the master, his brother Alex Marquez surged to second on the Gresini machine, securing a 1-2 lockout for Ducati. Zarco held firm to take third and lock down a front row start for Honda. Championship leader Jorge Martin put in two late improvements to grab fourth as the top Aprilia RS-GP, pushing home hero Jack Miller of Pramac Yamaha down to fifth. Raul Fernandez claimed sixth for Trackhouse, Pedro Acosta took seventh for KTM, and Fabio di Giannantonio rounded out the top eight for VR46 Ducati.
Marco Bezzecchi suffered through his toughest qualifying since the Catalan GP to end up ninth, just ahead of LCR Honda rider Diogo Moreira. Enea Bastianini of Tech3 KTM and Trackhouse Aprilia's Ai Ogura rounded out the top 12. Earlier in Q1, Brad Binder fought hard on the factory KTM but was pipped by Miller and Zarco, leaving him 13th on the grid. Stand-in rider Iker Lecuona took 14th for Gresini filling in for Fermin Aldeguer, beating Maverick Vinales of Tech3 and Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia. Substitute rider Augusto Fernandez also showed strong pace on the Pramac bike belonging to the injured Toprak Razgatlioglu, beating factory Yamahas of Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo, while Franco Morbidelli of VR46 Ducati wrapped up the 20-bike field.
Meanwhile, the Honda garage faced a complete disaster before FP2 even started. The team announced that Luca Marini was forced to withdraw from the rest of the weekend due to illness, leaving the factory squad without a single rider on the grid since Joan Mir was already sidelined due to unrelated health issues.
