Sachsenring MotoGP qualifying

15:52 Q2 result:

1 Marquez
2 Petrucci +0.160s
3 Pedrosa +0.647s
4 Crutchlow +0.787s
5 Folger +0.908s
6 Lorenzo +1.081s
7 Pol Espargaro +1.100s
8 Aleix Espargaro +1.224s
9 Rossi +1.367s
10 Dovizioso +1.401s
11 Vinales +1.521s
12 Bautista +1.666s

15:51 Petrucci doesn't improve, he has to settle for second as Marquez does find a bit more time and increases his pole margin from 0.019s to 0.160s.

15:50 Pedrosa stays third, Crutchlow's lap tails off and he stays fourth.

15:50 Rossi improves to ninth. Vinales is still down in 11th.

15:50 But Petrucci is even faster than Crutchlow at the first split.

15:50 Very quick first sector from Crutchlow too.

15:49 Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Pol Espargaro are the main men on quick laps into the final half-minute.

15:44 That's bizarre: on-board replies are just showing Vinales and Marquez managing to make contact. They both stayed upright but there was no shortage of puzzled gesticulating.

15:43 Petrucci goes faster again with a 1m27.4s.

15:43 And now the sun is out. There's still plenty of water and spray around, but it'll be steadily drying.

15:43 Lorenzo is faring pretty well by Lorenzo-in-the-rain standards - he's sixth.

15:42 Petrucci's margin is 0.596s over Pedrosa - he's in such brilliant form at the moment.

15:42 Vinales and Rossi are down to 10th and 12th.

15:42 It's Petrucci, Pedrosa, Folger, Marquez, Pol Espargaro now.

15:41 Folger now grabs the top spot from Petrucci, but very brief before Petrucci takes it back and Pedrosa moves into second.

15:40 Rossi is only 10th at the moment.

15:40 Now a flurry of changes: Pol Espargaro to second for a moment but he's quickly beaten by Folger then Pedrosa.

Crutchlow and Marquez end up fifth and sixth ahead of Vinales and Dovizioso.

15:40 Petrucci's 1m28.671s is a huge 1.5s faster than Lorenzo in second place, with everyone else still finding their way.

15:39 In an unusual move, Pramac's just announced - in the middle of Q2 - that it's keeping Petrucci for 2018.

He celebrates by going fastest.

15:35 Here we go for Q2. Lorenzo first out, which is probably for the best given how much he's hated these conditions lately.

15:26 Baz and Smith go fourth and fifth behind Miller.

15:25 Petrucci remains quickest.

15:25 Pol Espargaro goes to second! He knocks Miller back to third.

15:25 The chequered flag is out.

15:25 Miller's headed to the pits. He's obviously confident second is in the bag - but that might be optimistic.

15:24 Good laps brewing from Pol Espargaro,Smith, Baz and Iannone.

15:24 It's still Petrucci and Miller hanging on to the Q2 places.

15:24 KTM's extra rider Kallio improves to fifth, then drops to sixth as team-mate Espargaro goes third.

15:23 The rain did stop but now it's quite emphatically un-stopped and is lashing down.

15:22 Petrucci goes fastest, 0.279s ahead of Miller, pushing Iannone down to third.

15:22 Baz improves but only to fourth.

15:21 Good laps coming in from Miller, Barbera, Pol Espargaro and Baz. Yep, all of them.

15:21 Zarco has now got up to ninth.

15:20 Barbera and Baz are back to fourth and fifth.

15:20 Another rush of near-simultaneous place changes at the top - Miller goes fastest ahead of Iannone, Petrucci went from first to third in about a second.

15:17 Rins was fastest for a moment but is already back to eighth.

15:17 Incessant changes of top spot as more riders get comfortable. It's Petrucci now fastest from Miller, Pol Espargaro, Iannone, Barbara, Baz and Kallio.

15:16 Zarco's taking his time to get up to speed, he's slowest of all right now.

15:15 But things are going to change quickly in this weather, and Rins and Baz now move into the provisional Q2 places.

15:14 Pol Espargaro is fastest following the initial laps, with a 1m30.361s that puts him ahead of Miller by 0.069s.