A new MotoGP pole position lap record saw Marc Marquez claim his ninth pole position in a row at the Sachsenring.
The World Champion showed just why and how he has a 100% qualifying and race record at the German circuit since 2010 with a truly special lap to snatch the pole position from Danilo Petrucci as the chequered flag came out.
After posting the fastest lap of the opening runs, Marquez quickly saw Lorenzo and then Vinales better his time as it became clear he would attempt a three-run strategy, the only man to do so.
Coming in to change into his second bike with a soft rear and medium front Marquez improved on his lap time, mainly down to being over two tenths faster in the final sector alone. With other riders on their final runs as part of a two run strategy, Danilo Petrucci was in tow of Jorge Lorenzo to pip the Spaniard over the line and demote Marquez down to third position.
Coming out for his final run and back on a hard front tyre, Marquez built up to his final lap and with the chequered flag out, Marquez managed to claim the pole position with a brand new qualifying lap record of a 1:20.270.
Behind Marquez, Petrucci managed to hold onto second position and stay 0.033 seconds ahead of the man he followed around for his hot lap with Lorenzo starting from the outside of the front row.
Maverick Vinales couldn’t improve from his early session pace but will start from the head of the second row and he will be joined by the factory Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso who managed to salvage fifth position after successfully negotiating Q1 and his team-mate Valentino Rossi who’ll start from sixth despite being only 0.262 off of Marquez’ record breaking time.
Cal Crutchlow will start from seventh on his LCR RC213V while free practice fast man Andrea Iannone could only manage eighth with Alvaro Bautista showing good speed to qualifying in ninth position.
The fourth row will be made up of Dani Pedrosa in tenth with Alex Rins and Taka Nakagami in eleventh and twelfth positions respectively.
