World MotoGP champion Marc Marquez stormed to pole position for the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday, just a month after breaking his leg.

The 21-year-old Spaniard, riding a factory Honda, claimed his 10th pole in the MotoGP class and 38th overall.

Marquez, who became the sport’s youngest world champion when he triumphed in his rookie years in 2013, finished ahead of compatriot Alvaro Bautista on a Honda and Britain’s Bradley Smith on a Yamaha Tech3.

Marquez broke his right leg in a dirt-bike accident in his native Spain at the end of February and admitted in the run-up to the floodlit Qatar race that he was nowhere near 100 per cent fit.

The world champion only got back on his bike on Thursday and went into qualifying having been only fifth fastest in the three practice sessions.

But he charged to pole in a time of 1min 54.507sec with Bautista just 0.057sec behind and Smith, who had suffered a nasty crash in Friday’s final practice, missing out by less than a tenth.

The second row is made up of Andrea Dovizioso on a Ducati, 2010 and 2012 world champion and 2013 runner-up Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha and Dani Pedrosa on the second factory Honda.

Yamaha’s Aleix Espargaro, who had swept all three practice sessions, was only ninth, having walked away from two crashes.

Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi, on the second factory Yamaha, starts on the fourth row ahead of Ducati’s Andrea Iannone and Pol Espargaro on a Yamaha Tech3.