Marc Marquez moved one step closer to the 2012 Moto2 title by claiming his seventh pole of the year at Misano.
Title rival Pol Espargaro, on pole in the previous three consecutive races, was in contention but with five minutes to go dropped the front of his Pons Kalex at Turn 15.
The Spaniard did at least have the comfort of watching the rest of the field fail to beat his benchmark, allowing him to hang on to second.
In his absence however no one was seriously able to challenge Marquez in the final minutes. The Monlau Suter rider currently leads the championship by 48 points heading into the final six races.
With Espargaro unable to improve and Marquez not needing to, the final minutes centred around the battle for third, eventually decided in favour of Marc VDS's Scott Redding.
Takaaki Nakagami and Andrea Iannone were also in the mix, but eventually had to settle for fourth and fifth respectively.
It is only the second time all year Nakagami (Italtrans Kalex) has cracked the top four.
Iannone, set to step up into Ducati's satellite MotoGP team in 2013, finished just over one quarter of a second down on Marquez.
Sixth went to Thomas Luthi (Paddock Suter), who narrowly edged out Esteve Rabat (Pons Kalex), Ratthapark Wilairot (Gresini Suter) and Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Kalex).
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap
1. Marc Marquez Monlau Suter 1m38.242s
2. Pol Espargaro Pons Kalex 1m38.286s + 0.044s
3. Scott Redding Marc VDS Kalex 1m38.339s + 0.097s
4. Takaaki Nakagami Italtrans Kalex 1m38.369s + 0.127s
5. Andrea Iannone Speed Master Speed Up 1m38.503s + 0.261s
6. Thomas Luthi Paddock Suter 1m38.617s + 0.375s
7. Esteve Rabat Pons Kalex 1m38.699s + 0.457s
8. Ratthapark Wilairot Gresini Suter 1m38.793s + 0.551s
9. Mika Kallio Marc VDS Kalex 1m38.794s + 0.552s
10. Bradley Smith Tech 3 1m38.849s + 0.607s
11. Yuki Takahashi Forward FTR 1m38.866s + 0.624s
12. Julian Simon Avintia Suter 1m38.919s + 0.677s
13. Simone Corsi Ioda FTR 1m39.043s + 0.801s
14. Xavier Simeon Tech 3 1m39.074s + 0.832s
15. Johann Zarco JIR Motobi 1m39.114s + 0.872s
16. Claudio Corti Italtrans Kalex 1m39.122s + 0.880s
17. Dominique Aegerter Technomag-CIP Suter 1m39.253s + 1.011s
18. Jordi Torres Aspar Suter 1m39.277s + 1.035s
19. Randy Krummenacher Switzerland Kalex 1m39.417s + 1.175s
20. Mike di Meglio Kiefer Kalex 1m39.420s + 1.178s
21. Alex de Angelis Forward FTR 1m39.470s + 1.228s
22. Axel Pons Pons Kalex 1m39.486s + 1.244s
23. Gino Rea Gresini Suter 1m39.603s + 1.361s
24. Nicolas Terol Aspar Suter 1m39.804s + 1.562s
25. Anthony West QMMF Speed Up 1m40.125s + 1.883s
26. Tomoyoshi Koyama Technomag-CIP Suter 1m40.130s + 1.888s
27. Alessandro Andreozzi Speed Master Speed Up 1m40.471s + 2.229s
28. Steven Odendaal Arguinano AJR 1m41.156s + 2.914s
29. Marcel Schrotter SAG Bimota 1m41.222s + 2.980s
30. Marco Colandrea SAG FTR 1m41.951s + 3.709s
31. Elena Rosell QMMF Speed Up 1m42.102s + 3.860s