Marc Marquez and the Repsol Honda team picked the perfect time to make a push for pole as the promised rain storm failed to materialise at Phillip Island.

The Spaniard took a historic 65th pole position with a lap of 1’30.189, beating Cal Crutchlow by seven tenths of a second as he hit the track on full slicks at the ideal moment.

But the newly-crowned World Champion admitted he was happy he sealed the title a week ago in Japan as this weekend continues to throw up some difficult situations.

“This weekend has been really, really tricky with the weather conditions because you need to be fast of course but you need to have a clever strategy,” he said. “I’m lucky that in Japan it was already done because this weekend is really difficult to manage.

“The forecast said there will be heavy rain in 10 minutes and everyone went out, everyone was pushing but when I went out I saw that the track was completely dry and I took the risk to go in, lost maybe three minutes but got the correct tyres and then push at 100 per cent for three, four laps.

“I was a little bit worried because I thought now if somebody go in and put the correct tyres on they can do a better lap but it in the end it was enough.”

As the conditions continued to catch out most of the field, it was the Movistar Yamahas which suffered the most, but Marquez believes they can pull it back tomorrow, particularly if it stays dry.

He also thinks Valentino Rossi suffered because he chose the wrong time to go out and make a push for a lap to get him into Qualifying Two. He also expects both to be quick tomorrow.

“Of course, Jorge looks like he’s struggling in these conditions but in QP one he did a good lap on wet tyres to go in to QP2 but then he was struggling again.

“But you never know, maybe they will go out tomorrow and they will be the fastest guys because they have a lot of talent?

“Valentino, I think he stop in the box for a while but it was still not the correct time. He took the risk and this time it was not the correct strategy but I think tomorrow if it’s a normal race they will be fast.”