Marc Marquez led a Marquez family 1-2 and a Ducati 1-2-3 in MotoGP's German Grand Prix qualifying at the Sachsenring, as title hopeful Marco Bezzecchi suffered a fast crash.
Bezzecchi was on his second flying lap in the session, in a group of riders that also included the elder Marquez, when he was caught out going downhill through the fast Turn 7 left-hander.
His Aprilia slid for a long stretch and then found grip again suddenly, leading to an abrupt highside and Bezzecchi rolling through the gravel. He needed a bit of time to get back up after the crash, and ultimately didn't rejoin the session, before heading to the medical centre for checks on an apparent arm injury.
Out front, it was a close and twisty battle for pole - and though heavy Sachsenring favourite Marquez prevailed, he needed the three separate runs he had decided to do.
He ultimately delivered a 1m19.041s, the new MotoGP record lap of the Sachsenring, with brother Alex 0.061s back and Fabio Di Giannantonio another tenth down as the third rider on an all-Ducati front row.
Raul Fernandez held provisional pole at one point but was relegated to fourth in the end, still as the best of the Aprilias, with team-mate Ai Ogura right behind him in fifth.
But the 0.151s gap between pole and Fernandez was smaller than the 0.156s gap between Fernandez and fifth-placed Ogura.
Fabio Quartararo advanced through Q2 and then found a well-timed Trackhouse tow for the sixth-best time of the session, while his former Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli followed team-mate Di Giannantonio to the seventh-best time.
But Morbidelli will serve a three-place grid penalty on Sunday for impeding Pedro Acosta in Friday practice.
Despite his early exit from Q2 Bezzecchi is set to line up eighth in the sprint and seventh in the main race, on both occasions one place ahead of team-mate and points leader Jorge Martin.
Acosta, Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller rounded out a Q2 order covered by 0.740s.
Provisional German GP grid
1 M Marquez 2 A Marquez 3 Di Giannantonio
4 Fernandez 5 Ogura 6 Quartararo
7 Bezzecchi 8 Martin 9 Acosta
10 Morbidelli 11 Bagnaia 12 Miller
13 Mir 14 Marini 15 Binder
16 Bastianini 17 Razgatlioglu 18 Moreira
19 Rins 20 Vinales 21 Crutchlow
The three full-time Honda riders all came up just short in the fight for Q2, with Joan Mir in 13th ultimately heading up team-mate Luca Marini and LCR rider Diogo Moreira.
Marini had been up on Bagnaia's Q1-topping lap after three sector on his final lap, but had laboured in the final sector all weekend and was again stymied here, dropping a quarter of a second.
Moreira, who had latched on to Bagnaia on both of his Q1 runs but couldn't match the Ducati man's laps, will like Morbidelli, drop three places on the Sunday grid after impeding Marini on Friday.
from The Race https://ift.tt/KMvF4Pq
No comments: