Marquez in charge for pole position, Dovizioso down in 13th
Marc Marquez takes his 10th consecutive pole position at Sachsenring as Andrea Dovizioso drops out in Q1
Full qualifying results for the German MotoGP
Marc Marquez has clinched his 10th consecutive pole position at Sachsenring defending a gap to Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales, as his chief title rival Andrea Dovizioso dropped out in Q1.
The reigning MotoGP world champion came into the German MotoGP with nine straight pole positions and race wins across his career at Sachsenring and has completed half of his perfect 10 with pole position with a new lap record of 1m 20.195s.
At the start of the final run Marquez held over half a second advantage over nearest rival Quartararo and duly kept hold of his advantage with his lap record pace.
Despite seeing his pole position run ended by Marquez, the Petronas Yamaha still produced a phenomenal qualifying performance after bouncing back from a partial shoulder dislocation during Saturday morning’s FP3 session.
The rookie MotoGP rider fought back with a final-lap flyer of 1m 20.400s to take second place by just six-thousandths of a second ahead of Monster Yamaha’s Vinales.
Alex Rins heads up the second row for Suzuki thanks to his own late improvement to push Jack Miller into fifth place on the Pramac Ducati.
Cal Cructhlow completes row two for LCR Honda in front of the second Petronas Yamaha rider of Franco Morbidelli and Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro.
Joan Mir has claimed ninth place on the Suzuki but could face a grid penalty after blocking Danilo Petrucci during the opening runs in Q2. It was a disaster qualifying for Petrucci who crashed heavily at Turn 9 on his second run leaving him down in 12th place.
The Ducati drama started in Q1 as Takaaki Nakagami, suffering with left ankle pain from his collision with Rossi at Assen last weekend, produced a stunning final lap in the first session to jump into second place and the final promotion spot and push out Dovizioso.
That saw Nakagami secure 10th place in Q2 for LCR Honda ahead of fellow Q2 graduate Valentino Rossi with Petrucci completing the fourth row.
Dovizioso, annoyed with both Andrea Iannone and Karel Abraham for using him for a tow, will start the German MotoGP in 13th place with Stefan Bradl, standing in for the injured Jorge Lorenzo, and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro joining Dovizioso on the fifth row.
Iannone heads up row six for Aprilia ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and Hafizh Syahrin on the Tech3 KTM.
Johann Zarco struggled in qualifying down in 19th place on the Red Bull KTM but ahead of Miguel Oliveira (Tech 3) and Avintia Ducati duo Abraham and Tito Rabat.
