SEPANG (Malaysia): Reig­ning world champion Marc Marquez of Spain clinched a record 13th pole in the MotoGP season at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday.

Marquez, who sealed his title defence in Japan two weeks ago, also set a record time of one minute 59.791 seconds at Sepang to finish nearly two-tenths of a second faster ahead of Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Australians Mick Doohan and Casey Stoner had held the previous record of 12 pole positions in a season.

Pedrosa, who topped all three practice sessions and has won the last two Malaysian Grands Prix, was the only other rider to finish below the two-minute mark.

In third place was Yamaha’s two-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo in 2:0.203.

Stefan Bradl and Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso qualified on the second row while crowd favourite Italian Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi, who is current runner-up in the overall championship standings, could only manage sixth place.

Pol Espargaro of Yamaha broke his foot in a heavy crash during practice but will be assessed on Sunday morning to see whether he could race.

Hiroshi Aoyama fell early in the second session of qualifying but will line up 11th on the grid. Andrea Iannone was ruled out of Sunday’s race due to left arm injuries after crashing on Friday.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014