Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez shattered the outright Sachsenring lap record on his way to pole position in Germany with a lap some three-tenths of a second faster than team-mare Dani Pedrosa.
Marquez banged in a 1’20.336 with his final lap of the 15 minute session which obliterated his own best time of 1'20.937 set last year while Pedrosa managed a 1’20.628 not long after some on-track handbags with Cal Crutchlow.
Jorge Lorenzo completed the front row with his 1’20.921 on a rear tyre he doesn’t like and he was run close by Ducati’s Andrea Iannone who recovered from a poor third practice to lap at 1’20.29.
Pramac Ducati’s Yonny Hernandez came through qualifying one to take a mightily impressive fifth place using the soft-tyre concession on his satellite GP14 while championship leader Valentino Rossi slipped back to sixth place after starting brightly.
Ecstar Suzuki’s Aleix Espargaro jumped up the order to head the third row late on and was just in front of his brother Pol on the Monster Yamaha. His team-mate Bradley Smith had another difficult qualifying session, ending in ninth place but crucially ahead of Crutchlow who could only muster tenth place.
Despite having a soft-rear advantage, Andrea Dovisioso couldn’t make it work and he ended down in 11th place, just one ahead of Maverick Vinales who also came through qualifying one.
Scott Redding didn’t make it out of qualifying one and will start from 14th place with Eugene Laverty in 23rd, just one place and a quarter of a second ahead of brother Michael on the Aprilia.
