MotoGP: Marc Marquez Wins MotoGP Pole in Germany

Photo by Gold & Goose

Honda’s Marc Marquez continued his easy command of the Sachsenring by earning his fourth consecutive MotoGP pole for the German Grand Prix. Marquez led throughout the Q2 session on Saturday, setting the standard early and then improving on his own time, ultimately clocking a 1:21.160 late in the session to earn the top spot. Joining Marquez on the front row is Hector Barbera and Valentino Rossi.

It was Rossi’s sixth front-row qualifying effort in nine rounds. For Barbera it marked his best qualifying ever in MotoGP and only the second time he’s earned a front row start, his previous being a third at Mugello in 2012.

The session began with Andrea Iannone crashing his factory Ducati early in turn one in spite of appearing not to be pushing too hard.

Marquez led the way in the first half of the session over Barbera and Rossi with a relatively modest 1:21.561.

With less than three minutes to go Jorge Lorenzo, almost unbelievably, was down again for the third time this weekend, and the second time in a 15-minute span having crashed in Q2. The defending champ was probably thinking at that point that he could not wait for the German weekend to be over.

At the very end of the session series points leader Marquez improved his time to 1:21.160, the quickest time of the weekend, to consolidate his pole.

“I am very happy to have another pole position here at Sachsenring,” Marquez said. “Because before I was fast, but not fast enough to get the pole. Now we can work from the pole position and I’m happy with this result and with the pace. Valentino is very close and I know that in the race tomorrow he will be there. He can beat me because it looks like with a used tire he is able to manage well, but another big question mark will be the weather.”

For Barbera it was all smiles after qualifying.

“I’m very happy because second-place for me is a great place to start,” he said. “I like this track. Also for my bike this track is very well. I’m ready for the race. Tomorrow may be very different, maybe rain, but anyway, I’m ready.”

Rossi was the one bright spot for Yamaha in Germany.

“I’m lucky to remain in the first row,” Rossi explained. “Because unfortunately with the second tire I was stuck in traffic. I feel I could have two or three-tenths better because I did a 21. 6 just with the first tire. I feel good with the bike, we did a small modify from the free practice and I was faster. It’s a shame I couldn’t stay in second place, but anyway third is OK.”

The MotoGP race in Germany begins at 8:00am Eastern and can be watched on beIN Sports or by subscription online at MotoGP.com.

GoPro MOTORRAD GRAND PRIX DEUTSCHLAND MotoGP Qualifying Nr. 2 Classification 2016