The reigning World Champion Marc Marquez left his signature in the Qualifying, conquering a new pole position ahead of Petrucci and Lorenzo. Both Ducati riders managed to give him a hard time.
Marc Marquez gained another pole position today at Sachsenring, with a final record lap that allowed him to secure the first position on the starting grid (despite falling down during FP4 and managing to avoid a crash during Qualifying). But both Ducatis crossed the finish line closely behind him, meaning the World Champion really had to fight for today’s result. Danilo Petrucci finished 2nd (re-entering the competition after some technical issues during the last round of FP) and Jorge Lorenzo 3rd, but all three riders crossed the finish line in the space of just 57 thousandths. Tomorrow’s race will be a hard-fought battle: the German GP will start at 2 PM on Sunday.
Viñales was the first to make an extremely quick lap, soon followed by Lorenzo and Marquez, clearly showing that all firms are currently racing around the same speed. The best absolute times of the day initially came from two Ducati riders: first was Lorenzo and then Petrucci (following the Majorcan rider’s wake), able to improve his brand-mate lap time. But then arrived Marc Marquez, who managed to win over both with an excellent 1:20.270 that gave him his 9th pole position on this track. Danilo Petrucci and Jorge Lorenzo will be filling the rest of the front row, while Maverick Viñales will be opening the second together with Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi. Cal Crutchlow finished 7th followed by Andrea Iannone and Alvaro Bautista (who crashed during the last lap), while the top twelve was completed by Dani Pedrosa, Alex Rins, and Takaaki Nakagami.
Q1 showed us a great beginning for Dovizioso, who somehow had ended up out of the top ten during FP3. But Zarco, Bradl (in action for the injured Morbidelli), Miller and both Aprilia riders were racing right next to him. The fight to gain the two positions necessary to access Q2 was particularly fierce until Andrea Dovizioso got the first place followed by the rookie Takaaki Nakagami. Aleix Espargaró was the first rider to be left out (for just 9 thousandths) but he also got a penalty for standing in the way of Marquez during FP3, this way losing 6 positions on the starting grid (this is the second time he gets a penalty for this maneuver, as he did the same to Lorenzo in Barcelona).
The starting grid
