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Thomas Luthi beats Stefan Bradl to Sepang Moto2 pole as injured Marc Marquez settles for back row

Thomas Luthi claimed his maiden Moto2 pole position at Sepang, but the big story of the session was that Stefan Bradl qualified 34 places ahead of his title rival Marc Marquez

Marquez, who goes into the penultimate race of the year three points behind Bradl, has been in pain since a heavy crash on an unflagged wet area right at the start of Friday practice.

The Spaniard sat out the rest of practice before returning to the track for qualifying, where he did the required two laps to qualify and took 36th on the 37-bike grid.

Meanwhile Bradl held provisional pole until the closing minutes, when Luthi slipped ahead by 0.212 seconds.

Bradl can clinch the title tomorrow if he wins and Marquez is lower than 13th.

Michele Pirro earned his first Moto2 front row start even though he crashed twice. His time held for third despite a late improvement by his Gresini team-mate Yuki Takahashi, who took fourth.

The Espargaro brothers complete row two, with Pol ahead of Aleix.

Marc VDS duo Mika Kallio and Scott Redding line up seventh and ninth, sharing row three with Claudio Corti. Mattia Pasini was the final man in the top 10.

Having broken his collarbone in a crash at the same time as Marquez, Bradley Smith will miss this weekend's race.

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike            Time       Gap
 1.  Thomas Luthi         Interwetten Suter    2m07.512s
 2.  Stefan Bradl         Kiefer Kalex         2m07.724s  + 0.212s
 3.  Michele Pirro        Gresini Moriwaki     2m08.004s  + 0.492s
 4.  Yuki Takahashi       Gresini Moriwaki     2m08.069s  + 0.557s
 5.  Pol Espargaro        Speed Up FTR         2m08.107s  + 0.595s
 6.  Aleix Espargaro      Pons Kalex           2m08.154s  + 0.642s
 7.  Mika Kallio          Marc VDS Suter       2m08.240s  + 0.728s
 8.  Claudio Corti        Italtrans Suter      2m08.319s  + 0.807s
 9.  Scott Redding        Marc VDS Suter       2m08.412s  + 0.900s
10.  Mattia Pasini        Ioda FTR             2m08.414s  + 0.902s
11.  Alex de Angelis      JIR Motobi           2m08.417s  + 0.905s
12.  Esteve Rabat         Blusens FTR          2m08.466s  + 0.954s
13.  Andrea Iannone       Speed Master Suter   2m08.520s  + 1.008s
14.  Simone Corsi         Ioda FTR             2m08.549s  + 1.037s
15.  Max Neukirchner      MZ                   2m08.620s  + 1.108s
16.  Anthony West         MZ                   2m08.714s  + 1.202s
17.  Mike di Meglio       Tech 3               2m08.855s  + 1.343s
18.  Jules Cluzel         Forward Suter        2m08.934s  + 1.422s
19.  Kenan Sofuoglu       Technomag-CIP Suter  2m09.015s  + 1.503s
20.  Dominique Aegerter   Technomag-CIP Suter  2m09.087s  + 1.575s
21.  Joan Olive           Castello FTR         2m09.278s  + 1.766s
22.  Raffaele de Rosa     Forward Suter        2m09.307s  + 1.795s
23.  Xavier Simeon        Tech 3               2m09.315s  + 1.803s
24.  Valentin Debise      Speed Up FTR         2m09.382s  + 1.870s
25.  Axel Pons            Pons Kalex           2m09.472s  + 1.960s
26.  Santiago Hernandez   SAG FTR              2m09.625s  + 2.113s
27.  Jordi Torres         Aspar Suter          2m09.686s  + 2.174s
28.  Mohamad Zamri Baba   Petronas Moriwaki    2m09.822s  + 2.310s
29.  Randy Krummenacher   Kiefer Kalex         2m09.911s  + 2.399s
30.  Kenny Noyes          Avintia FTR          2m10.319s  + 2.807s
31.  Robertino Pietri     Italtrans Suter      2m10.348s  + 2.836s
32.  Ivan Moreno          Aspar Suter          2m10.875s  + 3.363s
33.  Yonny Hernandez      Blusens FTR          2m11.022s  + 3.510s
34.  Hafizh Syahrin       Petronas Moriwaki    2m11.388s  + 3.876s
35.  Mashel Al Naimi      QMMF Moriwaki        2m12.180s  + 4.668s
36.  Marc Marquez         Catalunya Suter      2m12.864s  + 5.352s
37.  Apiwat Wongthananon  SAG FTR              2m13.201s  + 5.689s

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