Zarco takes pole on drying Motegi track

Johann Zarco waits to qualify

France’s Johann Zarco took a shock pole in Japan, stunning the field to clinch top spot at the last minute.

Zarco starts ahead of Italy’s Danilo Petrucci with reigning champion Marc Marquez completing the front row.

After displaying a strong pace in every session at the Japanese Grand Prix, Repsol Honda’s Marquez set the third fastest time of the day at the end of a thrilling qualifying session on a drying Motegi track.

After switching from rain tires to slicks for his second time attack, the 24-year-old Spaniard was unable to improve on the time that had until then put him on provisional pole.

Nonetheless, his 1’53.903" time, set despite a big slide in the final corner, was quick enough to earn him his 11th front-row start of this season, less than half a second from pole-setter Johann Zarco.

Valentino Rossi also gambled on heading out on slicks from the beginning on a wet-but-drying track in Motegi.

And that risk didn’t pay off after the Italian great slipped off his bike at turn eight.

Spanish trio Aleix Espargaro, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa complete the top six.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Title challenger Andrea Dovizioso, who is second in the championship race 16 points behind Marquez, will start from ninth after a tricky qualifying.

Marquez has good grid position on his title rivals but will be wary of the threat from behind.

Marquez remains the favorite to take the win on Sunday

"The result is good but clearly the slicks today weren’t the right choice, as it was a bit too early for them.

"Anyway, you always have to look at the positive side of things, which in this case, firstly is that we’re still on the front row, as we had already done a very good lap time on rain tires; and secondly is that we managed to understand a few things in case of a flag-to-flag race.

"I’m also happy I saved a crash when I set my fastest time and avoided my team missing dinner tonight! I think we’ve had a good weekend so far, being able to do well in every session in the wet, keeping a fast pace in quite challenging conditions, and that’s very positive.

"Tomorrow it looks like it will rain again, but we’ll see; we could also have mixed conditions, and in that case we will have to be ready for every situation."

And with weather conditions set to be mixed once again tomorrow, the race promises to be a thriller.

Qualifying Results