Marquez claims fifth straight pole in Australia

Sydney, October 27: Marc Marquez claimed a fifth consecutive pole at the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday.

The Repsol Honda rider, who secured his fifth MotoGP title last week, produced a time of one minute, 29.199 seconds to clinch yet another pole at Phillip Island.

For Marquez, it marked his 51st MotoGP pole and sixth of what has been another dominant season.

Yamaha duo Maverick Vinales and Johann Zarco will start behind Marquez.

Rain threatened to ruin Q2 and it did at least have an early impact, although Marquez quickly went top of the timesheets after being the first rider to break 1:30.000.

Andrea Iannone (Suzuki Ecstar) and Zarco then went ahead of the champion, only for Marquez to respond in style, setting a time that would clinch pole as light rain arrived again late in the session.

Provisional classification:

1. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) 1:29.199secs 2. Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha) 1:29.509s 3. Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) 1:29.705s 4. Andrea Iannone (Suzuki Ecstar) 1:29.712s 5. Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) 1:30.026s 6. Jack Miller (Alma Pramac) 1:30.140s 7. Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) 1:30.270s 8. Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac) 1:30.328s 9. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 1:30.519s 10. Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) 1:30.593s