Moto3 Germany: Martin on pole after dominating at Sachsenring
Jorge Martin returned to pole for the sixth time this season as he topped the timesheets after dominating qualifying for the Moto3 German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring, round nine of the championship.
The Del Conca Gresini rider claimed consecutive poles after also leading off the line in Assen, following a performance where he led the session from start to finish, beating his own best late on to drop the quickest lap of qualifying to 1m 26.434s.
That dash around the track saw the championship leading Spaniard lapping solo, as he had done all session, until catching and passing both Philipp Oettl and Jakub Kornfeil while still chipping down at his best time. Martin had enjoyed a warm-up for this on his previous effort where he overtook Alonso Lopez and almost beat his best.
Joining him on the front row is Marcos Ramirez for Bester Capital Dubai in second, upping his best-ever qualifying by two positions and just 0.060s shy of Martin’s best at the chequered flag.
His KTM splits a pair of Hondas with Enea Bastianini improving to third in the closing stages for Leopard.
Rookie Jaume Masia recovered from his big FP3 crash to bite back for fourth on the second Bester Capital Dubai entry, his best-ever qualifying result giving the team two bikes inside the top five.
Aron Canet did his crashing during qualifying and despite looking good for pace it slowed his progress enough to leave him down in fifth for Estrella Galicia 0,0.
Marinelli Snipers rider Tony Arbolino rose to sixth, with former championship leader Marco Bezzecchi suffering an early fall which hampered his progress, but he fought back despite the limited track time for Redox PruestelGP to take seventh on the grid.
John McPhee starts in the middle of row three in eighth for CIP Green Power, the Brit was streets ahead of his current team-mate Stefano Nepa (who replaced Yurchenko from Assen) who lines up last.
Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas Sprinta Racing) completes the line in ninth, with Gabriel Rodrigo rounding out the top ten best times for RBA.
Oettl would have been hoping to be higher up the grid ahead of his home race, especially after showing pace by topping FP2 yesterday afternoon, but could only manage 13th in a competitive qualifying for his Sudmetal Schedl GP Racing team.
Lorenzo Dalla Porta, who topped the timesheets in the morning in FP3, also failed to match that promise - an early fall saw his bike spend much of the forty minutes in the garage, leaving him rushing to put in a fast lap - he starts 16th.
Ai Ogura (Asia Talent Team) returns as a wild-card - after spending the early part of the session near the top of the times he starts 18th and the Japanese rider is joined by German Luca Grunwald (Freudenberg Racing Team) who finished the session on his home track 26th.
Kaito Toba fell twice in qualifying, he was taken to the medical centre for checks after his second tumble but recorded a lap good enough for 24th before he left the track.
