It was a dominant performance by points leader Martin, who gambled on a hard compound front tyre in cold, dry conditions.

The gamble paid off big time, Martin able to gap the rest of the field lead by Marc Marquez by a whopping 0.594s.

It wasn’t without risk, though, with Martin almost tucking the front through Hayshed on the very lap before he sealed a third consecutive Phillip Island MotoGP pole.

“Today was a tricky day with this wind, it was drying quite fast so we didn’t know what to expect from the track,” said Martin.

“I’m really to make another pole position here, it’s fantastic. For sure the races will be tough. I have a strong Marc behind me, but we are the best in terms of pace, so let’s go for a good one.”

Maverick Vinales was strong throughout the session, holding second before being pipped by Marquez right at the flag to be demoted to third.

Marco Bezzechi qualified fourth ahead of title contender Francesco Bagnaia, who could only manage fifth fastest, more than a second slower than Martin.

Raul Fernandez, who topped Q1, ended up sixth ahead of Franco Morbidelli, Alex Marquez, Alex Rins and Enea Bastianini, who starts out of 10th.

Miller, meanwhile, will start his home race from 16th after being caught out by both a drying track in the first segment of qualifying – and a rogue rabbit that strayed onto the circuit.

The Aussie clashed with a rabbit early in the session which damaged the bottom of his bike and left his run plan out of sync.

He did manage to fight back and with a minute to go in Q1 things were looking good for Miller as he moved into second behind Bastianini.

However there was rapid track evolution in that last 60 seconds, allowing Fernandez to storm to the top. Bastianini had to improve to secure his own passage into Q2, while the likes of Johann Zarco (14th), Pedro Acosta (15th) and Miller were all knocked out.

The Sprint starts at 3pm AEDT.

Rabbit was here. 😳#KTM #ReadyToRace #AustralianGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/sByWNqzatU

— RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING (@KTM_Racing) October 19, 2024