Michael Scott | July 14, 2018
2018 German MotoGP Saturday Results
Will Marc Marquez continue to be unbeatable at the Sachsenring? He managed it at the end of a hectic qualifying session, taking his ninth successive pole position at the German track. Tomorrow he will be going for a ninth successive win.
2018 German MotoGP Saturday Results
The Repsol Honda rider even survived a couple of mistakes on his final laps to set a new pole record of 1.20.272, some six hundredths quicker than his own 2015 record. But he was just two-and-a-half hundredths quicker than Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac Ducati), who until then had been set for his first pole position.
Petrucci had set his time following factory Ducati rider Jorge Lorenzo, who topped the time sheets for a fraction of a second, and ended up third.
Marquez set his time by exploiting the short track and lap time, stopping twice to take three runs rather than the usual two. “The team did a perfect strategy,” he said, adding: “I didn’t really expect pole because I made a few mistakes … but 20 milliseconds are good enough!”
Petrucci was philosophical at losing pole, and admitted: “I was behind Jorge and that helped me a lot. But I have been fast all weekend. The difficulty tomorrow will be rear tyre wear.”
Lorenzo thought he too might have had a chance at a first pole, “but on my last tyre I made a small mistake – I opened the throttle a little late in the last corner, and lost acceleration. But the front row here is very important.” He missed pole by 0.057 of a second, but was a relatively yawning 0.114 ahead of third-fastest Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha).
Andre Dovizioso (Ducati) came through from Q1, and was sandwiched between the factory Yamahas on row three, with Valentino Rossi sixth.
Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) heads the third row from Andrea Iannone (Ecstar Suzuki) and Angel Nieto Ducati rider Alvaro Bautista. Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was tenth, then second Suzuki rider Alex Rins and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda), also through from Q1.
Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) was best of the rest, but a six-place grid penalty (see News) will hand 13th to Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha), leading row five from Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Ducati) and Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM).
2018 German MotoGP Saturday Results