Marquez snatched the lead from Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci with under two minutes left on the clock, finishing with a 1m55.201s benchmark.

Petrucci had established himself at the sharp end early on into the 20-minute daytime session, taking first place from compatriot Valentino Rossi with a 1m55.657s before lowering that to a 1m55.364s.

Marquez soon took the runner-up spot from Yamaha rider Rossi, but left it until late to dethrone Petrucci by a tenth and a half.

Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso split the pair at the chequered flag to finish second, while Marquez's Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa mounted a late charge for fourth place.

Read our pre-race analysis:

MotoGP's Qatar opener poised for 11-bike thriller

Andrea Iannone was the lead Suzuki in fifth, ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha's pole-sitter Johann Zarco and Rossi.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow lost the front and crashed at Turn 1 in the early stages, but rejoined and recovered to eighth.

Suzuki's Alex Rins was the only other rider to hit the deck, also at Turn 1, and made up the top 10, as Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro slotted in between him and Crutchlow.

Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo and Yamaha's Maverick Vinales both had muted showings, finishing 14th and 18th respectively.

Warm-up results:

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'55.201
2	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'55.312	0.111
3	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'55.364	0.163
4	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'55.383	0.182
5	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1'55.445	0.244
6	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'55.612	0.411
7	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'55.648	0.447
8	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'55.791	0.590
9	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'55.858	0.657
10	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'55.885	0.684
11	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'55.931	0.730
12	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'56.003	0.802
13	12	Thomas Luthi	Honda	1'56.048	0.847
14	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1'56.129	0.928
15	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'56.209	1.008
16	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Yamaha	1'56.256	1.055
17	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	1'56.271	1.070
18	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'56.272	1.071
19	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'56.579	1.378
20	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	1'56.693	1.492
21	21	Franco Morbidelli	Honda	1'56.705	1.504
22	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'56.830	1.629
23	10	Xavier Simeon	Ducati	1'57.073	1.872
24	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'57.516	2.315