Championship leader Marc Marquez’s dominance of this year’s MotoGP season continued on Saturday as he claimed his ninth pole position for Sunday’s Czech Republic MotoGP at Brno.

The 21-year-old Spanish Honda rider, who has won all 10 MotoGP races this year, will be accompanied by the Italian Ducati duo Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone on the front row.

Dovizioso trailed Marquez, who won this race last year, by 0.129sec in qualifying and Iannone was a further 0.012sec behind.

Britain’s Yamaha rider Bradley Smith took the fourth spot and will start from row two together with two Spaniards, Dani Pedrosa on a Honda and Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha.

Lorenzo’s Italian teammate Valentino Rossi came in seventh struggling with pain following a heavy crash in the last free practice earlier on Saturday.

The track was dry after two mild showers earlier in the day that had disrupted the Moto3 qualifying session and forecasters predict better weather for Sunday.

Marquez is looking to become the first premier class rider ever to win the 11 opening races of a season.

Italian legend Giacomo Agostini won the opening 10 races of the season in 1968, 1969 and 1970 at a time when he dominated the sport.

However, no one has ever won the first 11 races of a season – in part because Agostini’s perfect season in 1968 comprised only 10 events.

After 10 of 18 MotoGP races this year, Marquez leads the championship with a perfect 250 points, 89 ahead of fellow Catalan Pedrosa and 93 ahead of Rossi.