MotoGP World Champion Marc Márquez will start the Austrian Grand Prix on pole position after beating Italian Andrea Dovizioso by 0.002 seconds in qualifying on Saturday.
Marquez set a time of one minute and 23,241 seconds on his seventh lap to beat the Ducati rider by the smallest margin in the age of electronic timing since the 2003 Grand Prix of Germany.
Italian Max Biaggi overtook Jeremy McWilliams by 0.002 seconds in qualifying for that race.
Dovizioso’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo took third place in the front row for Sunday’s race at the Red Bull circuit.
Another Ducati rider, Danilo Petrucci, was fourth fastest ahead of Britain’s Cal Crutchlow and France’s Johann Zarco.
Four-time champion Marquez has 181 points after 10 races at the top of the championship and is well positioned to extend his 49-point lead over second-placed Valentino Rossi.
The great Italian couldn’t make it through the first qualifying round and will start in fourteenth place.
Qualifying results:
| Pos. | # | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 93 |  Marc Marquez |
Honda | 1’23.241 | |
| 2 | 4 |  Andrea Dovizioso |
Ducati | 1’23.243 | 0.002 |
| 3 | 99 |  Jorge Lorenzo |
Ducati | 1’23.376 | 0.135 |
| 4 | 9 |  Danilo Petrucci |
Ducati | 1’23.503 | 0.262 |
| 5 | 35 |  Cal Crutchlow |
Honda | 1’23.812 | 0.571 |
| 6 | 5 |  Johann Zarco |
Yamaha | 1’23.887 | 0.646 |
| 7 | 53 |  Tito Rabat |
Ducati | 1’23.922 | 0.681 |
| 8 | 29 |  Andrea Iannone |
Suzuki | 1’24.091 | 0.850 |
| 9 | 26 |  Dani Pedrosa |
Honda | 1’24.124 | 0.883 |
| 10 | 42 | Alex Rins |
Suzuki | 1’24.227 | 0.986 |
| 11 | 25 | Maverick Viñales |
Yamaha | 1’24.284 | 1.043 |
| 12 | 19 |  Alvaro Bautista |
Ducati | 1’24.342 | 1.101 |
| Q2 cut-off: 1’24.230 | |||||
| 13 | 38 |  Bradley Smith |
KTM | 1’24.245 | 1.004 |
| 14 | 46 |  Valentino Rossi |
Yamaha | 1’24.309 | 1.068 |
| 15 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro |
Aprilia | 1’24.762 | 1.521 |
| 16 | 43 |  Jack Miller |
Ducati | 1’24.805 | 1.564 |
| 17 | 55 |  Hafizh Syahrin |
Yamaha | 1’24.834 | 1.593 |
| 18 | 10 |  Xavier Simeon |
Ducati | 1’24.868 | 1.627 |
| 19 | 21 |  Franco Morbidelli |
Honda | 1’24.767 | 1.526 |
| 20 | 45 |  Scott Redding |
Aprilia | 1’25.067 | 1.826 |
| 21 | 30 |  Takaaki Nakagami |
Honda | 1’25.178 | 1.937 |
| 22 | 12 |  Thomas Luthi |
Honda | 1’25.310 | 2.069 |
| 23 | 17 |  Karel Abraham |
Ducati | 1’25.339 | 2.098 |
