Pol Espargaro took pole position for the 125cc class at the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, retaking the top spot on his final lap of the session.

Espargaro showed the way early in the session before championship leader Julian Simon took over halfway through. Espargaro took the top spot back with 12 minutes remaining but with three minutes remaining Simone Corsi put in a time of 1:38.126 to move to the top.

With 90 seconds remaining Espargaro retook pole only for Nico Terol to take the position just a few seconds later. But Espargaro stayed on it and with the session over, he put in a superb lap of 1:37.770 to put him quarter of a second ahead of his rivals.

Terol was second, just 18 thousandths of a second ahead of Simon, with Simone Corsi and championship contender Bradley Smith close behind in fourth and fifth.

Marc Marquez qualified in sixth place, having jumped up from 16th to second with five minutes remaining before dropping down the order in the flurry of the final few minutes, less than a second covering the top eleven riders on the grid.

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time      Gap
 1.  Pol Espargaro     Derbi    1m37.770s 
 2.  Nicolas Terol     Aprilia  1m38.049s + 0.279   
 3.  Julian Simon      Aprilia  1m38.067s + 0.297
 4.  Simone Corsi      Aprilia  1m38.136s + 0.366
 5.  Bradley Smith     Aprilia  1m38.155s + 0.385
 6.  Marc Marquez      KTM      1m38.292s + 0.522
 7.  Sandro Cortese    Derbi    1m38.552s + 0.782
 8.  Andrea Iannone    Aprilia  1m38.568s + 0.798
 9.  Joan Olive        Derbi    1m38.578s + 0.808
10.  Esteve Rabat      Aprilia  1m38.588s + 0.818
11.  Efren Vazquez     Derbi    1m38.663s + 0.893
12.  Stefan Bradl      Aprilia  1m38.890s + 1.120
13.  Lorenzo Zanetti   Aprilia  1m39.101s + 1.331
14.  Takaaki Nakagami  Aprilia  1m39.229s + 1.459
15.  Tomoyoshi Koyama  Loncin   1m39.237s + 1.467
16.  Sergio Gadea      Aprilia  1m39.274s + 1.504
17.  Dominique AegerterDerbi    1m39.354s + 1.584
18.  Cameron Beaubier  KTM      1m39.370s + 1.600
19.  Johann Zarco      Aprilia  1m39.390s + 1.620
20.  Michael Ranseder  Aprilia  1m39.426s + 1.656
21.  Danny Webb        Aprilia  1m39.521s + 1.751
22.  Randy KrummenacherAprilia  1m39.596s + 1.826
23.  Jonas Folger      Aprilia  1m39.615s + 1.845
24.  Scott Redding     Aprilia  1m39.990s + 2.220
25.  Luis Salom        Aprilia  1m40.545s + 2.775
26.  Jasper Iwema      Honda    1m41.646s + 3.876
27.  Jakub Kornfeil    Loncin   1m42.082s + 4.312
28.  Quentin Jacquet   Aprilia  1m42.965s + 5.195
29.  Luca Vitali       Aprilia  1m43.436s + 5.666
30.  Brad Gross        Yamaha   1m44.027s + 6.257
31.  Nicky Diles       Aprilia  1m44.063s + 6.293
32.  Luca Marconi      Aprilia  1m44.109s + 6.339