Marc Marquez held off a challenge from newly crowned champion Julian Simon to claim his second 125cc pole position of the season at Sepang.

KTM rider Marquez was half a second clear of the field going into the final laps, but looked set to lose out to Simon's Aspar Aprilia. But the champion lost a little time in the last sector and missed pole by 0.055sec.

Simon's teammate Bradley Smith held on to third despite a heavy crash at the last corner in the closing minutes. The Briton sat up straight afterwards and was alert, but required help from the marshals to leave the scene of the crash.

Sandro Cortese completed the front row, ahead of Nico Terol and Esteve Rabat.

Last week's Australian GP polesitter Pol Espargaro was only 11th this time. The Derbi rider went off early on and had to wait for his bike to be returned to the pits for repairs.

Also in trouble were Simone Corsi – left in 16th after crashing – and Sergio Gadea, who was two places further back due to a gearshift problem.

Pos  Rider                Bike     Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez         KTM      2m13.756s 
 2.  Julian Simon         Aprilia  2m13.811s  + 0.055
 3.  Bradley Smith        Aprilia  2m14.209s  + 0.453
 4.  Sandro Cortese       Derbi    2m14.231s  + 0.475
 5.  Nicolas Terol        Aprilia  2m14.403s  + 0.647
 6.  Esteve Rabat         Aprilia  2m14.686s  + 0.930
 7.  Joan Olive           Derbi    2m14.816s  + 1.060
 8.  Danny Webb           Aprilia  2m14.920s  + 1.164
 9.  Efren Vazquez        Derbi    2m14.975s  + 1.219
10.  Jonas Folger         Aprilia  2m14.992s  + 1.236
11.  Pol Espargaro        Derbi    2m15.019s  + 1.263
12.  Randy Krummenacher   Aprilia  2m15.219s  + 1.463
13.  Andrea Iannone       Aprilia  2m15.282s  + 1.526
14.  Lorenzo Zanetti      Aprilia  2m15.374s  + 1.618
15.  Takaaki Nakagami     Aprilia  2m15.436s  + 1.680
16.  Simone Corsi         Aprilia  2m15.455s  + 1.699
17.  Scott Redding        Aprilia  2m15.484s  + 1.728
18.  Sergio Gadea         Aprilia  2m15.529s  + 1.773
19.  Stefan Bradl         Aprilia  2m15.533s  + 1.777
20.  Luis Salom           Aprilia  2m15.951s  + 2.195
21.  Dominique Aegerter   Derbi    2m16.278s  + 2.522
22.  Johann Zarco         Aprilia  2m16.364s  + 2.608
23.  Michael Ranseder     Aprilia  2m16.530s  + 2.774
24.  Cameron Beaubier     KTM      2m16.533s  + 2.777
25.  Elly Ilias           Aprilia  2m17.952s  + 4.196
26.  Tomoyoshi Koyama     Loncin   2m18.348s  + 4.592
27.  Jasper Iwema         Honda    2m18.572s  + 4.816
28.  Jakub Kornfeil       Loncin   2m18.749s  + 4.993
29.  Blake Leigh-Smith    Honda    2m19.624s  + 5.868
30.  Muhammad Zulfahmi    Yamaha   2m19.655s  + 5.899
31.  Luca Marconi         Aprilia  2m19.868s  + 6.112
32.  Luca Vitali          Aprilia  2m21.127s  + 7.371
33.  Quentin Jacquet      Aprilia  2m21.148s  + 7.392