MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo will start Sunday’s first race in Indonesia in 25 years from pole position after a dramatic qualifying session that saw Marc Marquez twice crash out.

After waiting so long for top-class racing to return, Indonesia’s motorbike-mad fans were given a treat in incident-packed qualifying on the steamy island of Lombok on Saturday.

France’s Quartararo, who went fastest in practice on Friday on the new Mandalika circuit, topped qualifying with a time of 1 min 31.067 sec on his Yamaha, with Spain’s Jorge Martin second on the grid, 0.213 sec back.

Also on the front row, in third, was France’s Johann Zarco. Like Martin, he rides a Ducati. 

Italy’s Enea Bastianini, who won the season-opening Qatar race earlier this month on his Ducati, qualified fifth.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

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