Marc Marquez will start from a fourth consecutive MotoGP™ pole position for the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Multiple Sepang winner Valentino Rossi lines up second from Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, with title contenders Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa on the second row of the grid.

Having crashed out in dramatic fashion at MotorLand Aragón, it was Pedrosa who topped the first three practice sessions at the Sepang International Circuit. However, when it came to qualifying the 2012 race winner was unable to muster anything other than fifth place, six tenths of a second down on Marquez’s 2’00.011 pole which establishes a new qualifying record for the venue. This marks Marquez’s eighth pole of 2013, his fourth in succession and fifth from the latest six race events.

In a repeat of the German GP front row, albeit with the second and third-placed riders reversed, Rossi and Crutchlow will start second and third for their respective Yamaha Factory Racing and Monster Yamaha Tech3 outfits. In the case of the nine-time champion, he provisionally held pole position after enjoying a slipstream from Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso down the back straight, whereas Crutchlow celebrates a first front row start since his home race at Silverstone last month.

Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing), who won his first MotoGP™ title at Sepang in 2010, will start fourth after missing out on pole by half a second. Behind the reigning World Champion, Marquez’s teammate Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) misses the front row despite his rapid pace throughout practice, while the championship contenders will be accompanied on Row 2 by Alvaro Bautista; incidentally, the GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider will rise to sixth in the riders’ standings if he finishes fifth or higher in the race, as LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl was put out of action after suffering a right ankle fracture through a crash in final practice.

Row 3 will consist of Tech3’s Bradley Smith, equaling his second best MotoGP™ qualifying position of seventh from the aforementioned Dovizioso and lead CRT runner Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar), who passed through to the final shootout from Q1. Andrea Iannone rounds out the top ten for Energy T.I. Pramac Racing from Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden, whereas the absent Bradl was classified 12th but is now set to undergo surgery. This promotes NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards to a fourth row position, with the grid completed by Damian Cudlin who contrary to initial plans races again with PBM this weekend.

Heading into Sunday’s race, which begins at 4pm local time (GMT +8) and with rain expected by many, Marquez heads Lorenzo in the standings by 39 points. Pedrosa is third overall and 59 points off the lead, meaning he will be mathematically ruled out of title contention if Marquez wins and Pedrosa fails to score points in Sunday's 15th round of the campaign.

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World Championship leader Marc Marquez took his eighth pole position of the season with a new lap record at the Sepang International Circuit on Saturday.

It was an exciting conclusion to Q2 at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, Marquez again putting on a show, as he broke the circuit record on his final hot lap. That was enough to give him pole position number eight of the season, his fourth in a row.

Valentino Rossi, Cal Crutchlow, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa all took turns to lead the way in the 15 minute shootout, but it was rookie and World Championship leader Marquez who smashed the circuit record with his last attempt.

A mistake at Turn 1 of his penultimate lap had left him with little margin for error on his final go, but he came back strong to take another pole position. He will be joined by Rossi and Crutchlow on the front row, with Lorenzo and Pedrosa on the second row in fourth and fifth, respectively.

"I'm really happy with this pole position, particularly as earning it was a little different to with my previous poles," reflected the young Spaniard. "At the start of qualifying there were two completely wet corners, which made it hard to put in a hot lap as we had to calculate the amount of risk ‒whilst still maintaining our speed. I knew that the final lap of the session would be definitive, because the surface was drying out and conditions were getting better by the minute."

"Things worked out for us and I set a time that I really wasn't expecting. Tomorrow will be a different story, because Lorenzo and Dani both have a great pace, so we shall see if we have a bit of good fortune and the conditions remain dry."

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