Martin beats Marquez and Acosta to Austria MotoGP pole
Jorge Martin beat MotoGP championship rival Marc Marquez and Friday dominator Pedro Acosta to a vital Austrian Grand Prix pole.
Acosta carried his immense practice form for home team KTM through to the first part of Q2 but was upstaged on the final laps by Aprilia rider Martin and Marquez's works Ducati.
Marquez and Martin share the championship lead after Marquez's pair of wins and Martin's arm pump issues at Misano last weekend, with Marquez officially ahead on countback.
Martin's team-mate Marco Bezzecchi was two tenths of a second off the front row trio in fourth, just in front of Trackhouse's post-injury returnee Ai Ogura.
Though three of the Aprilias start in the top five, the other couldn't get beyond Q1. Raul Fernandez qualified only 13th, his worst starting position since Austin six months ago.
Gresini's Alex Marquez crashed at Turn 1 in the final moments of Q2, just as brother Marc had in the final moments of the preceding practice session.
After a very poor Friday, Pecco Bagnaia made it through from Q1 along with Johann Zarco and qualified an encouraging seventh.
Starting grid
1 Jorge Martin (Aprilia)
2 Marc Marquez (Ducati)
3 Pedro Acosta (KTM)
4 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia)
5 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia)
6 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
7 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati)
8 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati)
9 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha)
10 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda)
11 Brad Binder (KTM)
12 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati)
13 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia)
14 Pol Espargaro (Tech3 KTM)
15 Luca Marini (Honda)
16 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda)
17 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM)
18 Taka Nakagami (Honda)
19 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati)
20 Alex Rins (Yamaha)
21 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha)
22 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha)
