Marc Marquez was relaxed about another save as he went on to claim his ninth consecutive podium around the Sachsenring.

The World Champion claimed pole position after breaking his own qualifying pole record in the proceed with a 1:20.270 which was just 0.025 seconds ahead of second placed Danilo Petrucci’s time. Marquez piped Petrucci’s time with the chequered flag out in no small part to the three-run strategy that he and his HRC team executed in qualifying.

"Yeah of course like every qualifying practice you push on the limit and you try to find the best pace, the best line," Marquez said.

"But here it’s quite difficult because it’s a short track but you need to flow quite well in the first part. It was quite tough but the team did the perfect strategy, a new strategy here in the Sachsenring with three runs with different tyres in the front and in the end we did an amazing lap and it was important.

"All weekend I was fast but I never showed all my potential with the new tyres, but then on the qualifying practice in the current moment, we were leading and it felt really good when I see the big screen."

A lap before Marquez set his lap record, the Spaniard nearly lost the front end of his Repsol Honda RC213V at the long turn three Omega corner. Marquez somehow kept the bike up right and laughed it off in a typically nonchalant way.

"I was just coming too fast from turn two and then I got to turn three I locked the front on the brakes. Then I went in with too much speed and used more rear brake and that’s when I locked the rear tyre,” he explained.

"Then when I started to slide just, I didn’t open the throttle. I just stayed there on the bike and thought wait, wait, wait. But then I see with the new tyre it come back quick and I continue with the lap I lost some time.

"But that lap was the good one for the tyre. In the second lap already you’re missing some grip in the last sector but yeah another save, another day."

Despite claiming the pole position, Marquez hasn’t had blistering one lap speed, instead focusing on race pace for large portions of the weekend. Marquez thinks that this year will be closer than previous years thanks to the nice weather allowing teams and focus on finding a set up that works.

"In Sachsenring normally we have always some wet sessions and this weekend is the first time its completely dry, so everybody has time to find the best set up and everybody has time to find the best time,” the Spaniard said.

"If you check a little bit my third run in FP3 I was already in 21’s. So for me, I adapt very quick but then everybody arrive and now many riders will have the same pace more or less, but I feel strong and I feel well. It will be a difficult race as last 15 laps tyres will drop a lot for everybody but you need to manage and in that part of the race will be key."

With a short lap, Marquez is expecting everybody to be extremely fast in the opening stages of the race. He did however say that he believes around half race distance will be when the race is decided as that is when the tyres will start wearing quite quickly.

"Here the slipstream is very important, you can keep your pace and find your rhythm," he said. "But we will see because with the new tyre, as we see in qualifying everybody’s fast, the first ten laps everybody’s fast and has a good pace.

"Then after lap 10, lap 15 is when its start to be more complicated to ride the bike, more difficult. We will see the start, if Jorge starts like in Assen I am sure he will lead the race, he will push like always. But we need to be smart and understand its 30 laps."