MotoGP champion Marc Marquez out-paced a trio of Ducatis to claim pole position at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. Ducati's powerful Desmosedici has won both previous editions of the Austrian round, courtesy of Andrea Iannone and then Andrea Dovizioso. But Marquez - who lost out to Dovizioso at the final corner a year ago - kept his Honda in touch through the fast sections, then edged out an advantage in the twisty final part to claim pole by just 0.002s from Dovizioso. Dovizioso's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was just 0.135s from Marquez in third, with Pramac's Danilo Petrucci completing a top four covered by 0.262s. Satellite riders Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech3) will join Petrucci on row two, with Andrea Iannone (Suzuki), Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) forming row three. Completing the Qualifying 2 competitors were Alex Rins (Suzuki), Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha) and Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Ducati). Vinales' team-mate Valentino Rossi didn't progress past Qualifying 1 and suffered his worst qualifying for several seasons, in 14th. Qualifying took place in dry and sunny conditions after earlier rain. Sunday is also forecast to be dry. Marquez, narrowly beaten by Dovizioso and Lorenzo one week ago at Brno, will start the race with a 49-point title lead over Rossi.<doc-sep>Marc Marquez will start the Austrian GP from top spot on the grid. SPANIARD Marc Marquez grabbed pole position on Saturday on his Honda in qualifying for the Austrian MotoGP, edging the Ducatis of Italian Andrea Dovizioso and Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo. LIVE Stream the 2018 Austrian MotoGP Live & Ad-break free during racing on FOX SPORTS. SIGN UP NOW > TV TIMES: Watch the Austrian MotoGP LIVE on FOX SPORTS Marquez, the reigning world champion and leader in this season’s standings, delivered a lap of 1min 23.241sec in the second and final qualifying session, just two thousandth of a second faster than Dovizioso with Lorenzo third, 0.135sec back. Italian Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), who is second in the championship, was not fast enough to make Q2 and will start from 14th on the grid on Sunday. Grids for the Austrian motorcycling Grand Prix after final qualifying on Saturday: MotoGP Front row 1. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) 1:23.241, 2. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Ducati) at 0.002s, 3. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP/Ducati) 0.135 Second row 4. Danilo Petrucci (ITA/Ducati Pramac) 0.262, 5. Cal Crutchlow (GBR/LCR Honda) 0.571, 6. Johann Zarco (FRA/Yamaha Tech3) 0.646 Third row 7. Tito Rabat (ESP/Ducati Avintia) 0.681, 8. Andrea Iannone (ITA/Suzuki) 0.850, 9. Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda) 0.883 Fourth row 10. Alex Rins (SPA/Suzuki) 0.986, 11. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) 1.043, 12. Alvaro Bautista (SPA/Ducati Angel Nieto Team) 1.101 Fifth row 14. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) 1:24.309 Moto3 Front row 1. Marco Bezzecchi (ITA/KTM) 1:38.617, 2. Jorge Martin (ESP/Honda) at 0.078, 3. Albert Arenas (ESP/KTM) 0.638 Second row 4. Aron Canet (ESP/Honda) 0.883, 5. Tony Arbolino (ITA/Honda) 0.931, 6. Gabriel Rodrigo (ARG/KTM) à 1.259 Third row 7. Marcos Ramirez (ESP/KTM) 1.284, 8. Philipp Öttl (GER/KTM) 1.405, 9. Enea Bastianini (ITA/Honda) 1.508 Re-live all the action in our blog below.<doc-sep>Early pace again proved key as Francesco Bagnaia could not be caught, holding on to claim the top spot on the grid ahead of the Moto2 Austrian Grand Prix. The Sky Racing VR46 Kalex rider posted an untouchable 1m29.409s with still over half an hour of the session remaining, and although there were some late improvements his best remained good enough for pole. The Italian could not try to beat his own time in the final stages as both he and Lorenzo Baldassarri appeared to run out of fuel. Miguel Oliveira, who currently leads the championship by two points over Bagnaia, claimed second as he continues to see improvements in his qualifying performance, with a tweak to the Red Bull KTM Ajo strategy at their home round leaving him just 0.310s behind the lead time. Third went to Fabio Quartararo who impressed on the Speed Up, though his session was not without issue - he missed the final minutes after his dashboard started flashing battery warnings at him. Jorge Navarro gained time late on to improve to fourth for Gresini. He is joined on row two by Alex Marquez, who dropped from a best of provisional third following an unusual slip from his EG 0,0 Marc VDS machine. Mattia Pasini also made late gains to climb to sixth for Italtrans, as did Marcel Schrotter in seventh for Dynavolt Intact GP. Brad Binder gained a top ten start on his birthday in eighth on the second Red Bull entry, while Baldassarri came back from a crash on his Pons HP 40 bike to claim ninth. Luca Marini’s fall with 22 minutes of the session left saw his bike stop in the middle of the track at turn seven and leave debris behind after being moved, causing the session to be red-flagged allowing the track to be cleared. He did not return to track quickly enough for a final flying lap, leaving him to slip down to tenth on the second Sky Racing bike, a disappointing result for the Italian who has made great progress of late including pole in Brno. Romano Fenati was the best of the rookies in 15th for Marinelli Snipers. Joan Mir (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) had been lapping well before a fall dented his chances, leaving him down in 20th. It was also a tough day for the Brits with Sam Lowes (Swiss Innovative Investors)the best of the pair in 16th just ahead of Danny Kent (Speed Up) in 17th. Wild-card Xavi Cardelus (Team Stylobike) will starts 32nd . A crash right at the start of the session saw Steven Odendaal collide with the rear of Xavi Vierge - the Spanish rider was taken to the medical centre, his bike tangled with him as they travelled off track. He was later declared unfit to race tomorrow, diagnosed with a right wrist fracture.<doc-sep>Jorge Lorenzo hinted an internal misunderstanding was behind the decision to run the same front tyre throughout all of MotoGP qualifying at Austria, something he feels may have prevented him from taking the pole position fight to Marc Marquez. Lorenzo qualified third on Saturday afternoon, his quickest lap of 1m 23.376s just 0.135s of championship leader Marquez, and 0.133s of team-mate Andrea Dovizioso. But the tyre strategy was “misunderstood” on his side of the Ducati box, he revealed, with the Majorcan believing he could have gone even quicker. “We all knew that the three of us would be close to fight for the pole position, and it was like that. We are just one tenth from them. As you said, probably at the end we have enough time to put a new soft tyre that I always prefer to be a little bit faster. “But [there] was a little bit misunderstood in the garage and we didn’t put it. Probably this [prevented] us to fight a little bit more for the pole. Anyway, the important thing is to be in the first row to have a good start tomorrow, to have a good pace. “We have maybe not as much we wanted of [track] time, but plenty of time to understand a little bit the tires, the setting, and the pace. So I think we are ready to fight till the end like in Brno.” On whether he would opt for a similar strategy to last weekend at Brno, whereby he bided his time for two third’s of the race before launching a tough final attack, he said, “Well, last time was not so bad, the last strategy in Brno. "It depends. I will study a little bit this afternoon and after the warmup. Let’s decide the best one for me.” On Friday the 31-year old admitted he was lacking confidence in the 2.8-mile circuit’s third sector. He didn’t have the confidence to pitch into turns six and seven as he pleased, but feels some studying on Saturday evening should aid his cause. “In FP4 I improve a little bit in that sector, but unfortunately there still missing something. I don’t think it’s about the setting or the bike, it’s more about my riding style. “I’m going to try to study a little bit with the video and see if I can do something for tomorrow. In the warm-up we are going to try something that can improve a little bit the braking so hopefully we can find some more tenths.” On the two chassis that are available to him and Dovizioso, he added, “I think we swapped. Now I’m using the one from Dovi, and he’s using the one from me in Brno. As he said, difference is very small and also the feeling. "Not so much difference, but we prefer to concentrate in same chassis in both track, at least at this track. Let’s see in the next ones.”<doc-sep>
Championship rivals Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin began their battle in qualifying as they duelled it out on a drying track with Bezzecchi taking pole position in the final seconds in a frantic close to qualifying for the Moto3 Austrian Grand Prix. The Red Bull ring began drying rapidly and perfect timing and amazing performances were the order of the day to win the battle to top the crucial qualifying timesheet. Redox PruestelGP’s Bezzecchi came back from a crash at turn three with around twenty minutes remaining to be the rider on top when it counted most, his time of 1m38.617 enough for pole at round eleven. It is the KTM riders first pole, though he has already achieved his first win in the class, with victory at Argentina already achieved on his way to leading the championship. Though coming back from a crash was a great achievement, Jorge Martin impressed even more as he took advantage of the conditions to give him a great opportunity to overcome his injury, riding through the pain barrier after injuring his arm just last weekend in Brno he was in contention for pole but finished just 0.078s slower in second for Gresini and Honda. Albert Arenas improved to third on his final run to claim the final front row slot for the Angel Nieto Team(KTM). That pushed Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0) down to fourth. He will be joined on row two by Tony Arbolino, who seemed right at home on the drying track for the Marinelli Snipers Team in fifth and Gabriel Rodrigo, who also crashed earlier in the session before returning on his quickly repaired RBA bike for sixth at a track where he has proven speed after taking pole last year. Marcos Ramirez (Bester Capital Dubai) will fill seventh, while Philipp Oettl (Sudmetal Schedl GP Racing)was the first rider to switch on to slicks and rise to provisional pole before being pushed back to eighth after a late flurry of fast laps. Enea Bastianini claimed ninth for Leopard, with Adam Norrodin completing the top ten best times for Petronas. Jaume Masia ( Bester Capital Dubai) was the top rookie in the session claiming the twelfth best time. The riders who performed in Brno have so far struggled in Austria - pole man Jakub Kornfeil starts down in 13th with race winner Fabio DI Giannantonio an even more distant 16th. Vicente Perez (Reale Avintia Academy) flirted with first before falling just as the track gained grip, leaving him 29th. He was not last as John McPhee (CIP - Green Power) had a session to forget where he crashed twice, leaving him a disappointing 30th. Max Kofler (Motorsport Kofler) was the best of the two rookies in the paddock in 23rd , just ahead of Ai Ogura (Asia Talent Team) in 26th.