German Grand Prix Saturday round up, Qualifying: Marquez top, Crutchlow then Rossi, Espargaro 5th
Of the times set in Qualifying at the Sachsenring, the 1’21.887 was the most impressive, bagging Aleix Espargaro a fifth place grid spot. That’s just 0.576 behind Marc Marquez and his factory-spec Repsol Honda. OK, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa didn’t feature, but it’s still a stunning effort from a guy on a CRT machine that is worth a fraction of the cost of the prototype machines around him. It also puts him over one and a quarter seconds faster than his teammate, Randy De Puniet. Ouch.
It’s the same four riders – Marquez, Crutchlow, Rossi and Bradl – ahead of Espargaro that have featured in FP3 and FP4, thanks to the collarbone injury to Jorge Lorenzo, and the injuries to Dani Pedrosa. Pedrosa partially fractured his collarbone, but it was the head he banged during his highside that caused him problems. He was feeling dizzy and sick, and doctors deemed his blood pressure too low for racing.
The first three grid spots look tight, with just 0.182 separating Marquez, Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi. It’s close, but Marquez banged in 1’21s at will during the session, and looks to be the strongest rider.
The setup work and handling of the ART Aprilia in Espargaro’s hand is one of the reasons he’s so fast – along with the excellent Aprilia traction control. He’s 6th fastest overall in QP1, but 3rd fastest through sectors 2 and 3 respectively. Nicky Hayden, one place behind Espargaro on the factory Ducati, loses over a third of a second in just those two sectors.
QP1 times:
| Pos. | Rider | Team | Time | Lead. gap | Prev. gap |
| 1 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Came IodaRacing Project | 1’23.100 | ||
| 2 | Claudio CORTI | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1’23.148 | 0.048 | 0.048 |
| 3 | Randy DE PUNIET | Power Electronics Aspar | 1’23.152 | 0.052 | 0.004 |
| 4 | Hector BARBERA | Avintia Blusens | 1’23.333 | 0.233 | 0.181 |
| 5 | Michele PIRRO | Ignite Pramac Racing | 1’23.349 | 0.249 | 0.016 |
| 6 | Michael LAVERTY | Paul Bird Motorsport | 1’23.549 | 0.449 | 0.200 |
| 7 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Paul Bird Motorsport | 1’23.565 | 0.465 | 0.016 |
| 8 | Colin EDWARDS | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1’23.631 | 0.531 | 0.066 |
| 9 | Karel ABRAHAM | Cardion AB Motoracing | 1’23.752 | 0.652 | 0.121 |
| 10 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | Avintia Blusens | 1’23.820 | 0.720 | 0.068 |
| 11 | Lukas PESEK | Came IodaRacing Project | 1’24.395 | 1.295 | 0.575 |
| 12 | Bryan STARING | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | 1’27.273 | 4.173 | 2.878 |
| Andrea IANNONE | Energy T.I. Pramac Racing |
QP2 times:
| Pos. | Rider | Team | Time | Lead. gap | Prev. gap |
| 1 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 1’21.311 | ||
| 2 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1’21.434 | 0.123 | 0.123 |
| 3 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha Factory Racing | 1’21.493 | 0.182 | 0.059 |
| 4 | Stefan BRADL | LCR Honda MotoGP | 1’21.862 | 0.551 | 0.369 |
| 5 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Power Electronics Aspar | 1’21.887 | 0.576 | 0.025 |
| 6 | Nicky HAYDEN | Ducati Team | 1’22.157 | 0.846 | 0.270 |
| 7 | Bradley SMITH | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1’22.297 | 0.986 | 0.140 |
| 8 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | 1’22.484 | 1.173 | 0.187 |
| 9 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | 1’22.561 | 1.250 | 0.077 |
| 10 | Claudio CORTI | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1’23.059 | 1.748 | 0.498 |
| 11 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Came IodaRacing Project | 1’23.361 | 2.050 | 0.302 |
| Dani PEDROSA | Repsol Honda Team |
Motothoughts 