Marc Marquez took his sixty-eight pole position in career and his eighth in a row at the Sachsenring today (his fifth there in MotoGP), with Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa joining him on the front row in third place.

Qualifying day at the German GP dawned without rain, but FP3 was the only MotoGP session today to be completed in totally dry conditions. Marc was fastest in that session with Dani ninth, both securing spots in Q2.

FP4 saw the Repsol Honda pair displaying an impressive pace before rain started falling 10 minutes from the end, when Marc was leading the way in first and Dani just behind in second.

Movistar Yamaha

Q2 shoot-out saw Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales secure ninth and eleventh place on the grid for tomorrow‘s GoPro Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland.

After a brilliant FP3 from Rossi, during which he advanced straight into Q2, the Italian was eager to continue making strides in the afternoon qualifying session. He was one of the first riders out of the pit box and left a competitive impression as his first try initially lifted him to fifth place. He was quick to better his time on his next flying lap, but it didn‘t improve his ranking.

Unable to significantly climb the ranks also on his next three attempts, the Doctor decided it was time to change tactics. He returned to the pit box with less than four minutes to go for a tyre swap, opting for the soft front / medium rear combination. A quick minute later he headed back out for his second run and his tyre choice proved to be the right decision for the drying track conditions. He had time for one lap and stepped up his pace on his final try. He set a 1'28.669s to claim ninth position on the grid, 1.367s from first.

Teammate Viñales displayed his confidence in today‘s dry morning free practice session but struggled to reproduce the results in the afternoon in the wet Q2 session. He went straight into action as soon as the green light signalled the start of the 15-minute time attack and slotted into fourth place. He improved his time but not his position on his next lap and was looking to keep the momentum going, but lost valuable seconds as he got involved in a small collision with Marc Marquez.

Despite the incident, the Yamaha rider tried to quickly get back into a good rhythm and, though he continued to struggle to get a feel for the wet conditions, he dug deep and climbed back up from twelfth to ninth, dipping under the 1'29 mark with a 1'28.823s. He had three more attempts at beating his personal best time, but was unable to improve and ended the day in 11th place, 1.521s from the front.

Marc Marquez

``When I saw that it was going to be a wet qualifying session, I set a front-row position as my target. Anyway, I’ve felt very good on the bike since the beginning and I saw that the rain was easing off, so I tried to find a good rhythm as I prepared to attack in the final stages. Halfway into the session there was a bit of confusion with Maverick. In qualifying everyone pushes a lot and there was some contact, but luckily nothing happened. In the end I was able to do a very good lap and I’m quite happy with that, as it’s always very difficult to manage in the rain. Now we just need to focus on the race, which will be tough as there are many fast riders with a good pace, starting with my teammate! It seems that it won’t rain, but whatever conditions we find, it will be okay, as we have a really good pace both in the dry and in the wet.''

Valentino Rossi

It‘s been a difficult weekend so far. It happened a lot of times this year: the feeling with the bike and especially with the tyres changed a lot from one track to the other. This makes it always a big surprise, sometimes positive, sometimes negative. In the dry I'm not so bad, it's nothing fantastic, but my pace is not so far from the front, but unfortunately in the wet I suffer more. It looks like all the Yamahas, except Folger who isn't so bad, suffer in the wet. We didn't expect it, because last week in Assen I was competitive in the wet, but it looks like this time it's more difficult, so we need to try some modification for tomorrow and try to be stronger.

Results Session

Pos.

Rider

Num

Nation

Team

Time/Gap

1

MARQUEZ Marc

93

SPA

Repsol Honda Team

1'27.302

2

PETRUCCI Danilo

9

ITA

Octo Pramac Racing

1'27.462

3

PEDROSA Dani

26

SPA

Repsol Honda Team

1'27.949

4

CRUTCHLOW Cal

35

GBR

LCR Honda

1'28.089

5

FOLGER Jonas

94

GER

Monster Yamaha Tech 3

1'28.210

6

LORENZO Jorge

99

SPA

Ducati Team

1'28.383

7

ESPARGARO Pol

44

SPA

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

1'28.402

8

ESPARGARO Aleix

41

SPA

Aprilia Racing Team Gresini

1'28.526

9

ROSSI Valentino

46

ITA

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

1'28.669

10

DOVIZIOSO Andrea

4

ITA

Ducati Team

1'28.703

11

VINALES Maverick

25

SPA

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

1'28.823

12

BAUTISTA Alvaro

19

SPA

Pull&Bear Aspar Team

1'28.968

13

MILLER Jack

43

AUS

Team EG 0,0 Marc VDS

1'27.967 Q1

14

BAZ Loris

76

FRA

Reale Avintia Racing

1'27.979 Q1

15

SMITH Bradley

38

GBR

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

1'28.015 Q1

16

IANNONE Andrea

29

ITA

Team Suzuki Ecstar

1'28.103 Q1

17

KALLIO Mika

36

FIN

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

1'28.285 Q1

18

BARBERA Hector

8

SPA

Reale Avintia Racing

1'28.404 Q1

19

ZARCO Johann

5

FRA

Monster Yamaha Tech 3

1'28.444 Q1

20

ABRAHAM Karel

17

CZE

Pull&Bear Aspar Team

1'28.625 Q1

21

LOWES Sam

22

GBR

Aprilia Racing Team Gresini