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125cc: Marquez takes record 10th pole

125cc championship leader Marc Marquez claimed a record 10th pole position of the season with another superb performance in Sepang qualifying

Going into the closing minutes, it seemed likely that Aspar Aprilia's Bradley Smith would upstage the title contenders and start from pole for the third time in 2010.

Marquez's penultimate lap looked slightly too slow to depose Smith, but a tow from Esteve Rabat on the pits straight allowed the Ajo Derbi to grab the provisional top spot by 0.005 seconds.

The Spaniard then made completely sure of pole by improving by nearly three tenths of a second on his last lap - despite a scare when a large part of the rear bodywork from Sturla Fagerhaug's bike flew off when right in front of Marquez. It was the points leader's second near-miss of the afternoon, Zulfahmi Khairuddin having crashed just in front of him in the opening minutes.

Smith remained second, ahead of his team-mate Nico Terol and third title combatant Pol Espargaro (Tuenti Derbi), whose team-mate Efren Vazquez bounced back from his nasty Motegi startline crash to qualify fifth.

However Jonas Folger, who struck Vazquez in that accident, is having to sit out Sepang after a broken arm was diagnosed during subsequent checks in Malaysia.

Sandro Cortese, Rabat, Luis Salom, Tomoyoshi Koyama and Randy Krummenacher completed the top 10.

Danny Webb sustained a broken bone in his hand in a practice crash yesterday, but shrugged this off to qualify 12th, while Danny Kent again took Lambretta to new heights as he grabbed 13th.

Pos  Rider                Bike       Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez         Derbi      2m13.398s
 2.  Bradley Smith        Aprilia    2m13.691s  + 0.293s
 3.  Nicolas Terol        Aprilia    2m14.104s  + 0.706s
 4.  Pol Espargaro        Derbi      2m14.105s  + 0.707s
 5.  Efren Vazquez        Derbi      2m14.415s  + 1.017s
 6.  Sandro Cortese       Derbi      2m14.551s  + 1.153s
 7.  Esteve Rabat         Aprilia    2m14.772s  + 1.374s
 8.  Luis Salom           Aprilia    2m15.494s  + 2.096s
 9.  Tomoyoshi Koyama     Aprilia    2m15.541s  + 2.143s
10.  Randy Krummenacher   Aprilia    2m15.967s  + 2.569s
11.  Johann Zarco         Aprilia    2m16.150s  + 2.752s
12.  Danny Webb           Aprilia    2m16.286s  + 2.888s
13.  Danny Kent           Lambretta  2m16.392s  + 2.994s
14.  Alberto Moncayo      Aprilia    2m16.543s  + 3.145s
15.  Adrian Martin        Aprilia    2m16.706s  + 3.308s
16.  Simone Grotzkyj      Aprilia    2m17.151s  + 3.753s
17.  Louis Rossi          Aprilia    2m17.154s  + 3.756s
18.  Marcel Schrotter     Honda      2m17.268s  + 3.870s
19.  Jakub Kornfeil       Aprilia    2m17.441s  + 4.043s
20.  Lorenzo Savadori     Aprilia    2m17.802s  + 4.404s
21.  Sturla Fagerhaug     Aprilia    2m17.878s  + 4.480s
22.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Aprilia    2m17.896s  + 4.498s
23.  Marco Ravaioli       Lambretta  2m17.953s  + 4.555s
24.  Jasper Iwema         Aprilia    2m18.515s  + 5.117s
25.  Luca Marconi         Aprilia    2m19.444s  + 6.046s
26.  Tommaso Gabrielli    Aprilia    2m21.190s  + 7.792s

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