Pecco Bagnaia produced an epic performance in Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying to come through from Q1 and take his third MotoGP pole of 2025.
Having had two dreadful weekends in Indonesia and Australia since dominating in Japan, Bagnaia felt he was in competitive shape during Malaysia practice and that his presence in Q1 was just because he hadn't put a decent lap together on Friday rather than a sign that he was genuinely off the pace again.
He was pipped to Q1 top spot by Gresini's Fermin Aldeguer but made it through to Q2 in second place.
With just one soft tyre set left to use, Bagnaia had only one shot at Q2 and he delivered on it - producing a 1m57.001s lap that proved unbeatable.
Fabio Quartararo looked set to topple him and give Yamaha a second straight pole, only to lose so much time in the straight-heavy final sector (a tow from team-mate Alex Rins on the back straight perhaps nullified by a twitch under braking for the hairpin) that he ended up just fourth behind Alex Marquez's Gresini Ducati and VR46 rider Franco Morbidelli.
Sepang MotoGP grid
1 Bagnaia; 2 A Marquez; 3 Morbidelli
4 Quartararo; 5 Acosta; 6 Aldeguer
7 Mir; 8 Di Giannantonio; 9 Zarco
10 Rins; 11 Miller; 12 P Espargaro
13 Marini; 14 Bezzecchi; 15 R Fernandez
16 Oliveira; 17 Ogura; 18 Binder
19 Bastianini; 20 Chantra; 21 Savadori
22 Pirro; 23 A Fernandez
Yamaha's V4 bike remained a muted presence on its second race weekend appearance, with Augusto Fernandez slowest in qualifying. He had warned pre-weekend that running in a "safe" engine setting at the behest of Yamaha bosses was going to compromise the V4 on Sepang's long straights.
Pedro Acosta crashed at Turn 1 in Q2 and starts fifth for KTM. Maverick Vinales' Tech3 stand-in Pol Espargaro was yet again the second-best KTM in 12th.
Just after going quickest in Q1, Aldeguer fell at Turn 4, and then effectively crashed again in the paddock in a bizarre incident as he arrived back at the rear door to the Gresini garage and crunched his bike into the wall.
Taking an unconventional route back to the paddock and a...second crash for @Aldeguer54, who tops Q1 💥😅#MalaysianGP 🇲🇾 pic.twitter.com/DRnIREc1Qm
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 25, 2025
He used his spare bike to qualify sixth.
Honda starts seventh and ninth with Joan Mir and LCR's Johann Zarco, but Luca Marini was squeezed down to 13th on the grid when Aldeguer and Bagnaia found their pace at the end of Q1 and then he encountered yellows for Aldeguer's crash while trying to respond.
Having dominated the Australian GP weekend, Aprilia was nowhere in Malaysia qualifying.
None of its four bikes made the automatic Q2 spots and none of them looked particularly likely to progress there from Q1 either.
Its Phillip Island winners Marco Bezzecchi and Raul Fernandez will start only 14th and 15th. It was works rider Bezzecchi's first Q2 absence since Aragon in June.
