Marc Marquez takes another Moto2 pole at Estoril

Marquez (Monlau Suter) was on top for almost the entire session, but his position at the top of the timesheets finally came under threat when Luthi (Paddock Suter) put together his best lap two minutes from the session's end.

Luthi missed out by just one hundredth of a second however, a gap which proved academic when Marquez extended his advantage on his final tour, breaking into the 1m40s bracket for the first time.

Scott Redding (Marc VDS Kalex) was a quarter of a second down on the pole fight but did enough to claim third ahead of Johann Zarco (JIR Motobi) and Pol Espargaro (Pons Kalex), the man currently closest to Marquez in the championship.

Like Marquez, Andrea Iannone (Speed Master Speed Up) improved on his final tour to jump into sixth, in the process demoting Julian Simon (Avintia FTR) to the third row.

The Spaniard will start alongside the Aspar Suter of compatriot Toni Elias - winner at Estoril in MotoGP back in 2006 - and Alex de Angelis's Forward Suter.

Pos  Rider                  Team/Bike              Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez           Monlau Suter           1m40.934s
 2.  Thomas Luthi           Paddock Suter          1m41.054s  + 0.120s
 3.  Scott Redding          Marc VDS Kalex         1m41.278s  + 0.344s
 4.  Johann Zarco           JIR Motobi             1m41.311s  + 0.377s
 5.  Pol Espargaro          Pons Kalex             1m41.424s  + 0.490s
 6.  Andrea Iannone         Speed Master Speed Up  1m41.461s  + 0.527s
 7.  Julian Simon           Avintia FTR            1m41.469s  + 0.535s
 8.  Toni Elias             Aspar Suter            1m41.504s  + 0.570s
 9.  Alex de Angelis        Forward Suter          1m41.536s  + 0.602s
10.  Dominique Aegerter     Technomag-CIP Suter    1m41.539s  + 0.605s
11.  Takaaki Nakagami       Italtrans Kalex        1m41.636s  + 0.702s
12.  Ricard Cardus          Arguinano AJR          1m41.671s  + 0.737s
13.  Bradley Smith          Tech 3                 1m41.733s  + 0.799s
14.  Mike di Meglio         Speed Master Speed Up  1m41.815s  + 0.881s
15.  Nicolas Terol          Aspar Suter            1m41.841s  + 0.907s
16.  Esteve Rabat           Pons Kalex             1m41.954s  + 1.020s
17.  Mika Kallio            Marc VDS Kalex         1m41.990s  + 1.056s
18.  Simone Corsi           Ioda FTR               1m42.130s  + 1.196s
19.  Randy Krummenacher     Switzerland Kalex      1m42.138s  + 1.204s
20.  Yuki Takahashi         Forward Suter          1m42.319s  + 1.385s
21.  Claudio Corti          Italtrans Kalex        1m42.359s  + 1.425s
22.  Xavier Simeon          Tech 3                 1m42.377s  + 1.443s
23.  Axel Pons              Pons Kalex             1m42.527s  + 1.593s
24.  Roberto Rolfo          Technomag-CIP Suter    1m42.947s  + 2.013s
25.  Gino Rea               Gresini Moriwaki       1m43.032s  + 2.098s
26.  Anthony West           QMMF Moriwaki          1m43.134s  + 2.200s
27.  Max Neukirchner        Kiefer Kalex           1m43.205s  + 2.271s
28.  Ratthapark Wilairot    Gresini Moriwaki       1m43.450s  + 2.516s
29.  Alexander Lundh        MZ FTR                 1m44.105s  + 3.171s
30.  Angel Rodriguez        SAG FTR                1m44.253s  + 3.319s
31.  Elena Rosell           QMMF Moriwaki          1m45.154s  + 4.220s
32.  Marco Colandrea        SAG FTR                1m45.845s  + 4.911s