Oct 3 (Reuters) - Aprilia's Jorge ⁠Martin set a lap record to grab pole position at ⁠the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday ahead of title rival ‌and defending MotoGP champion Marc Marquez.

Ducati's Marquez held provisional pole with his time of 1 minute 42.481 seconds, but a late scorching 1:42.371 from Martin catapulted the ​championship leader to the top of the ⁠timesheets.

"It's a situation that I'm ⁠getting used to, we struggle a bit on Friday, then we ⁠do ‌a great job trying to analyse well, and then we make a big step on Saturday," Martin said.

"That was the ⁠target. I didn't expect to fight for the ​pole position. I ‌was aiming maybe for the first row, but I was ⁠able to do ​a great lap, honestly."

Martin leads Marquez by 12 points in the championship and will look to widen that gap in Saturday's sprint and Sunday's ⁠race.

For Marquez, qualifying ended in frustration after ​a few late errors, including an excursion onto the gravel while pushing for a faster time.

"I'm happy, but of course, with that second tyre, ⁠too many mistakes. I was just able to push in the last lap, and again, another big mistake," he said.

"Starting in the front row was the main target. Let's see if in the ​sprint race we can do a good pace."

KTM's ⁠Pedro Acosta, who claimed the first MotoGP victory of his career ​in the Austrian Grand Prix last month, ‌completed the front row.

Japan's Ai Ogura ​of Trackhouse Racing was 11th-quickest after topping the first qualifying session.

(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)