MotoGP: Marc Marquez Stays Dominant At Sachsenring

Marc Marquez’ dominance of Sachsenring continued in today’s MotoGP qualifying for the German Grand Prix. The Repsol Honda man scored his seventh-consecutive pole at Sachsenring with a 1:21.160. Marquez was happy to score yet another pole position at a circuit he favors, but is well aware the others are coming for him.

“I’m happy to have set the fastest time today, because we’re better here than at other circuits. I have a fairly good pace and am riding comfortably,” Marquez said. “We'll see what happens tomorrow, because the weather forecast is for conditions to be quite unstable. In any case, we’ll try to finish on the podium, which is our goal. It seems that Valentino [Rossi] is very strong, and we’ll also have to keep Dani [Pedrosa] in mind; I don’t know what happened to him in qualifying, but his pace is very close to ours and he’s very strong here.”

Taking the second spot for a career-best qualifying performance in the premier class was Avintia Ducati’s Hector Barbera. The Spaniard was also top independent rider and the top-qualifying Ducati, which Barbera points out is a two-year-old machine.

“I am very happy because this has been my best result on the MotoGP grid,” Barbera said. “It's a track where expectations were high. To get the second position is incredible and I think it is a way to thank the team and all the people who work on this project. The team is doing a very good job all weekend. I think we have the ability to do it and we have shown that today. We have a bike that is two years old and it shows, because you always have to put a little more. Tomorrow in the race I do not know if it will be wet or dry; but I try to do my best and leave here with a good result.”

Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi had a much better day two of the German Grand Prix. The Italian made some adjustments and improved his times to qualify third. Rossi was happy to be on the front row, but felt he could have done better.

“I was lucky to stay on the first row, because unfortunately with the second tire I got stuck in traffic and I feel that I could have done two or three-tenths better because I did a 1:21.6 on the first tire,” Rossi said. “I feel good on the bike. We have made a small modification since the Free Practice sessions and I was faster, so it‘s a shame I wasn‘t able to take second place, but third is okay.”

In the end, Rossi scored third by the skin of his teeth as he shared an identical time with his fellow Italian Danilo Petrucci on the Octo Pramac Yakhnich Ducati. But Rossi took that final spot on the front row based on his second best time. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Pol Espargaro qualified fifth and Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Vinales sixth to join Petrucci on the second row of the grid.

In seventh was Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso followed by Vinales’ teammate Aleix Espargaro. Andrea Iannone qualified ninth. The Ducati rider crashed five minutes into the session, throwing a wrench into his qualifying performance. Rounding out the top 10 was Marquez’ teammate Dani Pedrosa.

It was another rough day for Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo who crashed in both Q1 and Q2 sessions, ultimately scoring his worse qualifying position – 11th – since Assen 2013 when he broke his collarbone.

2016 MotoGP Sachsenring Qualifying Results: