Qualifying report
MotoGP Malaysian GP
MotoGP Malaysian GP: Alex Marquez claims pole from Marc Marquez; Jorge Martin out
Championship leader Marquez puts his Ducati on the middle of the front row, with his nearest pursuer Martin out of the weekend
Rachit Thukral
Published: Oct 31, 2026, 3:46 AM
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Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
Alex Marquez edged out his elder brother Marc Marquez to claim pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix, as Ducati dominated Saturday morning’s qualifying at Sepang.
While reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez had been the fastest rider at Sepang on Friday, Gresini’s Alex Marquez went quicker when it mattered, beating him to the top spot in Q2 by just 0.070s.
Pedro Acosta completed the front row for KTM, while Ai Ogura emerged as the top Aprilia rider in fourth ahead of Marco Bezzecchi.
Just minutes into the start of Q1, Aprilia announced that championship contender Jorge Martin will sit out the remainder of the weekend due to injury, boosting Marc Marquez’s hopes of winning a 10th title.
Marquez had already set the pace in Friday practice, but as Q2 began it was his younger brother Alex who laid the initial benchmark, posting a time of 1m56.697s in the first five minutes to take to the top.
Marc Marquez also managed to break the 1m57s barrier on his first run, but ended up more than three tenths of the reigning Malaysian GP winner.
Pedro Acosta emerged as Ducati’s closest rival in the first half of the session, while Marco Bezzecchi and Ai Ogura stood fifth and seventh on the two surviving Aprilia bikes.
As the second runs began, the Noale-based manufacturer rose to the fore, with Bezzecchi edging out Alex Marquez by 0.029s before Ogura went even quicker on a 1m56.617s.
However, Ducati still had more speed on tap, with Marc Marquez demoting Ogura to second despite suffering some wild moments on his factory GP26.
Utimately, it was Alex Marquez who ended qualifying on time, the 30-year-old asserting his authority at Sepang - where he won last year - with a time of 1m56.493s.
With no late changes to the order at the front, the Marquez brothers locked out the top two spots on the grid, with Acosta continuing his strong form from Friday to grab third place.
Acosta’s late effort relegated Aprilia to the second row, with Ogura ending up fourth for Trackhouse ahead of factory rider Bezzecchi.
Fabio di Giannantonio wound up sixth for VR46, while Tech3’s Enea Bastianini ended up seventh after topping FP3 earlier on Saturday.
Honda’s charge was led by Johann Zarco in eighth, the Frenchman coming from Q1 to book a spot on the third row.
Francesco Bagnaia also progressed from Q1 but smashed the windscreen of his Ducati in anger after losing half a second in the third sector. He eventually qualified ninth, behind the year-old GP25 of VR46 rider Franco Morbidelli.
Joan Mir (Honda) and Maverick Vinales (Tech3) completed the top 12.
Factory Honda rider Luca Marini missed out on a Q2 slot by seven hundredths of a second, ending up 13th on the grid ahead of the LCR-entered RC213V of Honda rookie Diogo Moreira.
Brad Binder couldn’t join the rest of the KTM contingent in the second part of qualifying, finishing almost eight tenths off the pace in 15th.
Yamaha’s dismal weekend at Sepang continued on Saturday, with the four M1s languishing at the bottom of the grid. The best of the Yamaha quartet was Pramac’s Jack Miller in 16th, with factory riders Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo following him in 17th and 18th respectively.
Augusto Fernandez, substituting for the injured Toprak Razgatlioglu, was the slowest rider in a depleted 20-bike MotoGP field, just behind the Gresini Ducati of Iker Lecuona.
Q2
All Stats
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap 1 A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73
Ducati 6
1'56.493
171.296 2 M. Marquez Ducati Team 93
Ducati 6
+0.070
1'56.563
0.070 171.193 3 P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 37
KTM 6
+0.084
1'56.577
0.014 171.172 4 A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team 79
Aprilia 6
+0.124
1'56.617
0.040 171.113 5 M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team 72
Aprilia 7
+0.175
1'56.668
0.051 171.039 6 F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46 49
Ducati 7
+0.349
1'56.842
0.174 170.784 7 E. Bastianini Tech 3 23
KTM 6
+0.477
1'56.970
0.128 170.597 8 J. Zarco Team LCR 5
Honda 4
+0.523
1'57.016
0.046 170.530 9 F. Morbidelli Team VR46 21
Ducati 7
+0.775
1'57.268
0.252 170.164 10 F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 63
Ducati 4
+0.794
1'57.287
0.019 170.136 11 J. Mir Honda HRC 36
Honda 7
+0.850
1'57.343
0.056 170.055 12 M. Viñales Tech 3 12
KTM 7
+1.244
1'57.737
0.394 169.486 View full results
Q1 results
All Stats
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap 1 J. Zarco Team LCR 5
Honda 6
1'57.341
170.058 2 F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 63
Ducati 6
+0.211
1'57.552
0.211 169.752 3 L. Marini Honda HRC 10
Honda 7
+0.282
1'57.623
0.071 169.650 4 D. Moreira Team LCR 11
Honda 5
+0.392
1'57.733
0.110 169.491 5 B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33
KTM 6
+0.786
1'58.127
0.394 168.926 6 J. Miller Pramac Racing 43
Yamaha 6
+0.807
1'58.148
0.021 168.896 7 A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing 42
Yamaha 6
+0.814
1'58.155
0.007 168.886 8 F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20
Yamaha 7
+0.878
1'58.219
0.064 168.795 9 I. Lecuona Gresini Racing 27
Ducati 7
+1.115
1'58.456
0.237 168.457 10 A. Fernandez Pramac Racing 47
Yamaha 6
+1.514
1'58.855
0.399 167.891 11 J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team 89
Aprilia 0
View full results
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