Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

By: Jake Boxall-Legge

Summary

Status: Stopped
We'll call it here for the qualifying coverage, but check back with Autosport and Motorsport.com over the rest of the day as we'll bring you reaction from this qualifying session and other MotoGP news.
Sachsenring MotoGP: Marquez beats Quartararo to pole
 
Marquez: "I mean, I enjoyed a lot in FP4 - in the qualy you ride on the limit and it's difficult to enjoy. But anyway I was riding in a very good way, first tyre just I make a good laptime, second tyre I push and I feel really good in that tyre, maybe I was able to be a little bit faster but I made a mistake.

"And the last tyre, maybe was the one I felt worse but I was able to improve the laptime. Happy, but just keep working, because both Yamaha riders and even the Suzuki of Rins have a really good pace."
Quartararo: "Well, feels really good. To be in the front row because this morning was really tough, and at the end really happy because I think here is one of the most important track to be starting from the first row, so yes, really looking forward for the race, will be a long one but I think we'll be quite ready to fight."
 
Vinales: "It feels good. Today I feel I could do more - in my best lap I lose the front, with the hard, I lose a lot, even losing the front I was on 20.9 so was not so bad.

"Sure I was feeling to go faster but in the end I'm pretty happy. The objective was first row, I'm starting quite well so let's see tomorrow."
 
 
A shout-out to Espargaro, whose eighth place is KTM's best qualifying effort since COTA. Where would the Austrian marque's MotoGP team be without him?
Q2 results: 1 Marquez, 2 Quartararo, 3 Vinales, 4 Rins, 5 Miller, 6 Crutchlow, 7 Morbidelli, 8 P Espargaro, 9 Mir, 10 Nakagami, 11 Rossi, 12 Petrucci.
The second row is Alex Rins' Suzuki, Jack Miller's Ducati and Cal Crutchlow's Honda.
Quartararo comes up 0.005s short of his previous best lap, but hangs on to second place. Vinales completes the front row.
It's a 1m20.195s from Marquez, which secures him pole position at the German Grand Prix!
Chequered flag. Marquez and Quartararo are both on seriously fast laps!
Quartararo improves to second place, is briefly surpass by Vinales, but then reclaims it again! He's just 0.185s slower than Marquez.
Now the Ducati man is on his feet, and is examining his right hand, which appears to be in a sub-optimal state.
Petrucci is clearly conscious but he's not managed to stand up yet. That was a big one.
 
Petrucci's down in a big crash at Turn 9.
The late-Q1 crash seems to have really thrown off Rossi, who is only ninth at the moment, and is slower than he had been in Q1.
Vinales was on course to take second before Miller's improvement, but nearly fell off his bike at Turn 12. He'll have another go at it as he, like Marquez, has gone for a two-stop Q2 here.
A big effort from Miller on the hard rear tyre - he's up to second place, 0.475s off Marquez. That's downright heroic considering where the other Ducatis are.
Replays show Petrucci catching Mir on exit of Turn 12, and getting extremely furious with the Spanish rookie.
That improvement has left Marquez 0.553s clear of his nearest rival Rins. The pole battle is almost certainly over.
Seven minutes to go, and Marquez fires in a 1m20.215s. That's a new lap record, I believe.
Petrucci is caught raging and gesticulating out there, for what is already the second time this session. He's having some traffic headaches.
Current order: 1 Marquez, 2 Rins, 3 Quartararo, 4 Vinales, 5 Miller, 6 Crutchlow, 7 P Espargaro, 8 Morbidelli, 9 Petrucci, 10 Rossi, 11 Mir, 12 Nakagami (no time).
It's Marquez, Rins - who'd been off the track - and Quartararo making up the top three now, split by two tenths. But Marquez clearly has some more pace in his pocket.
Marquez is a tenth up after three sectors, but rolls out of his lap and brings his Honda into the pits.
Rins, Miller, Vinales and Pol Espargaro slot in behind the reigning champion.
Marquez sets the initial benchmark, a 1m20.575s. He was a touch quicker in FP3.
Every Q2 participant but Nakagami is already out on track, with Vinales opting for a hard rear, and the rest of the pack picking the soft tyre.
LCR team boss Cecchinello says Nakagami's Q1 effort is "confirmation that motorcycle riders can do something special", as the Japanese rider remains in a lot of pain from his Assen injury.
Q2 is underway now.
This has sparked a bit of an office debate, but it feels fairly significant that Hafizh Syahrin has outpaced the other two KTMs in Q1 here.

He was miles off at the start of the season, and there's very heavy rumblings that he will make way for KTM's Moto2 benchmark Brad Binder at Tech 3 next year - but he's really picked up himself up since the opening races, at least over one lap, Does he really deserve the axe, on current form?
Your Q2 roster is: Marquez, Quartararo, Vinales, Crutchlow, Rins, Morbidelli, Petrucci, Miller, Mir, P Espargaro, Rossi, Nakagami.
Q1 results: 1 Rossi, 2 Nakagami, 3 Dovizioso, 4 Bradl, 5 A Espargaro, 6 Iannone, 7 Bagnaia, 8 Syahrin, 9 Zarco, 10 Oliveira, 11 Abraham, 12 Rabat.
LCR team boss Lucio Cecchinello is a mixture of confusion and elation. That is superb work from Nakagami, who advances alongside Rossi.
And here comes the injured Taka Nakagami, improving from eighth place to knock out Dovizioso by 0.003s! Wow.
Chequered flag, Bradl improves to third.

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe