Motegi Moto2: Pol Espargaro denies title rival Marc Marquez pole

The pair were on top throughout, with Marquez setting the early pace before Espargaro lowered the benchmark to a 1m51.130s with 13 minutes to run.

Marquez's threat tailed off in the immediate aftermath of that lap, and in his stead it was Espargaro's Pons Kalex stablemate Esteve Rabat who looked most likely to challenge for pole.

With two minutes remaining, and while on his fastest lap, Rabat overcooked it however, running through the gravel and curtailing his bid.

Espargaro then shaved a quarter of a second off his own benchmark, which ultimately proved decisive as Marquez improved late on.

The Monlau Suter rider's time was enough to move into second, but still more than one tenth down on Espargaro's 1m50.886s.

Scott Redding sealed fourth on his Marc VDS Kalex, with Thomas Luthi (Paddock Suter) and Johann Zarco (JIR Motobi) taking a share of the second row.

Bradley Smith, Julian Simon and Nico Terol will start from seventh to ninth respectively.

As Marquez and Espargaro took up their typical positions at the front, the championship's third-place rider Andrea Iannone endured a torrid session.

Having struggled throughout practice, the Italian was running just 17th when he fell at Turn 9. He was able to resume but could not improve and was demoted to 18th at the flag.

He will therefore start directly behind Mika Kallio, who had a controversial clash with Marquez in third practice - the Spaniard hitting Kallio's bike and leaving the Finn in the gravel after a failed attempt overtaking bid.

Pos  Rider                  Team/Bike              Time       Gap
 1.  Pol Espargaro          Pons Kalex             1m50.886s
 2.  Marc Marquez           Monlau Suter           1m51.023s  + 0.137s
 3.  Esteve Rabat           Pons Kalex             1m51.156s  + 0.270s
 4.  Scott Redding          Marc VDS Kalex         1m51.273s  + 0.387s
 5.  Thomas Luthi           Paddock Suter          1m51.481s  + 0.595s
 6.  Johann Zarco           JIR Motobi             1m51.640s  + 0.754s
 7.  Bradley Smith          Tech 3                 1m51.736s  + 0.850s
 8.  Julian Simon           Avintia Suter          1m51.740s  + 0.854s
 9.  Nicolas Terol          Aspar Suter            1m51.977s  + 1.091s
10.  Toni Elias             Italtrans Kalex        1m51.980s  + 1.094s
11.  Takaaki Nakagami       Italtrans Kalex        1m52.038s  + 1.152s
12.  Simone Corsi           Ioda FTR               1m52.052s  + 1.166s
13.  Axel Pons              Pons Kalex             1m52.061s  + 1.175s
14.  Yuki Takahashi         Forward FTR            1m52.098s  + 1.212s
15.  Mika Kallio            Marc VDS Kalex         1m52.223s  + 1.337s
16.  Jordi Torres           Aspar Suter            1m52.239s  + 1.353s
17.  Alex de Angelis        Forward FTR            1m52.309s  + 1.423s
18.  Andrea Iannone         Speed Master Speed Up  1m52.353s  + 1.467s
19.  Dominique Aegerter     Technomag-CIP Suter    1m52.536s  + 1.650s
20.  Anthony West           QMMF Speed Up          1m52.686s  + 1.800s
21.  Ricard Cardus          Arguinano AJR          1m52.781s  + 1.895s
22.  Xavier Simeon          Tech 3                 1m52.921s  + 2.035s
23.  Mike di Meglio         Kiefer Kalex           1m53.180s  + 2.294s
24.  Marcel Schrotter       SAG Bimota             1m53.182s  + 2.296s
25.  Ratthapark Wilairot    Gresini Suter          1m53.206s  + 2.320s
26.  Andrea Andreozzi       Speed Master Speed Up  1m53.256s  + 2.370s
27.  Tomoyoshi Koyama       Technomag-CIP Suter    1m53.299s  + 2.413s
28.  Gino Rea               Gresini Suter          1m53.413s  + 2.527s
29.  Kohta Nozane           SAG FTR                1m53.505s  + 2.619s
30.  Jesko Raffin           Team Switzerland Kalex 1m54.352s  + 3.466s
31.  Elena Rosell           QMMF Speed Up          1m54.674s  + 3.788s
32.  Eric Granado           JIR Motobi             1m55.057s  + 4.171s