Marc Marquez Unstoppable On Saturday In MotoGP Qualifying At Sachsenring

Marc Marquez topped both dry practice and wet qualifying on Saturday to earn his 68th career Grand Prix pole position and eighth successively across three classes at the Sachsenring.

Free Practice 3, like FP1 and 2 on Friday, was extended from 45 to 55 minutes to give MotoGP riders more experience on the recently resurfaced, 13-turn, 2.28-mile German track.

Marquez got within 0.409 seconds of his own lap record in FP3 with a best-of-session 1:20.745. Maverick Vinales was the only other rider to bust through the 1:21 barrier.

Focusing on race pace in FP4, Marquez posted nine consecutive laps in the high 1:21s and mid 1:22s, his final five varying by no more than just 0.111 seconds.

Dani Pedrosa, Marquez’s Repsol Honda teammate, was also able to reach the 1:21s before rain began to fall with 12 minutes remaining in the 30-minute session.

Heavy rain soaked the circuit and continued throughout Qualifying 1—a real nail-biter. By the time Q2 got rolling, the downpour had subsided though the circuit was still very wet.

Danilo Petrucci led much of Q2, losing out by 0.160 seconds. In parc ferme, the Italian gave Marquez a friendly shove. His first pole will have to wait until at least next month’s Czech GP.

About his 1:27.302 pole-winning lap, Marquez said, “In the beginning, I was patient. I was waiting to the end because the water was coming less and less.

“Then, I realized, with less water, there was even less grip. So, it was difficult to improve the lap time. The main target was to try to be on the front row and pole position.

“Even last year, the track dried so quick. This year, with the new asphalt, even more. For tomorrow, I hope for a dry race but you never know. It will be tough.”

Petrucci, third at Mugello and second last weekend at Assen, will line up for Sunday’s 30-lap race in the second spot on the starting grid.

One of several big names who missed the top-10 cutoff in FP3, the 26-year-old OCTO Pramac Ducati rider said going through Q1 was actually a blessing.

“I was lucky to stay in Q1 to get the right confidence,” he said. “At the end [of Q2], Marc was faster than me, but it was a big fight. I was on my limit.”

Pedrosa was also consistently quick, dry or wet. “Compared to last weekend, where the conditions were similar, we did a much better job,” he said.

“The asphalt is very grippy in the wet. [The track] was drying little by little and the temperature was rising, so it was more difficult to find the right line.”

Cal Crutchlow just missed the front row and will start fourth, a real improvement from Friday. "Yesterday, we were 13th," he noted. "We have to make the right tire choice tomorrow."

Rounding out the top five is German hero Jonas Folger. “I was not sure how fast I could go,” the Yamaha Tech 3 rider said. “I followed Marc for a few laps, and I saw some good lines.”

Where are the factory Ducatis, a winner in the hands of current points leader Andrea Dovizioso at Mugello and Catalunya? Jorge Lorenzo is sixth on the grid, and Dovizioso is 10th.

“Conditions were as I prefer, not so much water,” Lorenzo said. “If I could have changed the rear tire, I could have been even faster. It overheated too much the last three laps.”

Lorenzo’s lap-by-lap progression in Q2 tells the story: 1:30.721, 1:30.174, 1:29.454, 1:28.865, 1:28.857, 1:28.549, 1:28.383, 1:31.525, 1:28.666, 1:28.798.

“Yesterday, we did 25 laps and the consumption of the tire was very low,” said a baffled Dovizioso. “Today, we finished the rear tire in four laps. This is really bad.”

Pol Espargaro also transferred from Q1 to Q2. The former Moto2 world champion earned the best-ever start for KTM, sixth, in his ninth weekend for the Austrian factory.

“The electronics were perfect and grip on the rear was really good,” Espargaro said, adding that in the second 15-minute session, like Lorenzo, his rear tire got hot.

For the third race in a row, neither factory Yamaha will start from the front row. Valentino Rossi qualified ninth and teammate Maverick Vinales was 11th.

“Like has happened a lot of times this year, you have a very different feeling from one track to the other, especially with the tires,” Rossi said. “This is very difficult to manage.

“In the dry, my pace is not fantastic, but I am not so far from the guys on the top. In the wet, I suffer more. The bike is difficult to ride, and I am very slow.”

Vinales also had “many problems” in wet conditions. “When I touched the gas, I didn’t have good drive,” he said. “For me, it’s a problem with the electronics.”

Marquez has just one win—Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas—in the last 11 races. Will the 24-year-old Spaniard keep his German winning streak alive on Sunday?

“Whatever conditions we find,” Marquez said, “it will be okay, as we have a really good pace both in the dry and in the wet.”