German MotoGP, Sachsenring - Full Qualifying Results

*Rookie

Fastest Friday time:
Marco Bezzecchi ITA Ducati 1m 20.271s

Official Sachsenring MotoGP records:
Best lap:
Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati 1m 19.765s (2022)
Fastest race lap:
Marc Marquez SPA Honda 1m 21.228s (2019)

Francesco Bagnaia claims pole position during a dramatic qualifying for the German MotoGP at Sachsenring, which saw Marc Marquez suffer two more accidents in the space of 15 minutes, meaning three for the day (and four for the weekend) so far.

With Johann Zarco also a late faller, the resulting yellow flags saw a spate of cancelled laps, leaving reigning champion and title leader Bagnaia on pole from fellow Ducati rider Luca Marini (VR46) and KTM's Jack Miller.

• Marc Marquez: Middle finger down to “adrenaline”| “Only Zarco could avoid clash”
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After a wet final practice, Brad Binder and 11-time Sachsenring winner Marc Marquez reached Qualifying 2 by being the only riders to fit slick tyres in Qualifying 1. Marquez had been forced to sprint back to the pits for his dry bike (Kalex chassis) after crashing at the final corner on wets (Honda chassis) before grabbing the final transfer spot. 

All riders ran slicks from the start of Qualifying 2, when the drama continued for Marquez - who had suffered numerous scares yesterday, then fell with his bike taking out Johann Zarco - as he highsided at the final corner. The #93 limped away and later, somehow, got his lone remaining Honda back to the pits, while Marco Bezzecchi suffered a replica accident.

Even the Repsol Honda team were shocked to see Marquez and his battered RC213V suddenly appear, mechanics rushing to repair the damage by whipping the wings off Joan Mir's vacant bikes, before Marquez (12th and last) returned for the final five minutes.

Marquez climbed to sixth, then fell again at turn 1, the scene of yesterday's Zarco impact, on his final lap, leaving him to start from seventh. Zarco's accident was bigger, at the treacherous Waterfall corner, but he escaped injury.

Countryman Fabio Quartararo may have reached Qualifying 2 for the first time in four rounds but it didn't do the Yamaha star much good, being left 12th and last.

* Rookie

Brad Binder and Marc Marquez are rewarded for risking slicks by leading a damp Qualifying 1 at the Sachsenring and will now join the top ten riders on Friday in the Q2 pole position shootout.

Despite large parts of the track being dry, nobody dared to try slicks until Binder with five minutes to go.

Moments later 11-time winner Marquez, using one Honda chassis and one Kalex chassis this morning, fell (on wets) with the HRC frame at the final corner. The Spaniard leapt to his feet and ran back to the pits before his bike had even stopped moving, returning, on the Kalex chassis, with slicks to snatch second.

Binder and Marquez were the only riders to fit sicks - KTM revealing team-mate Jack Miller had convinced Binder to go for dry tyres, the South African giving a thumbs up to the Australian as he returned to the garage.

The pair could now benefit from their extra knowledge of the tricky track conditions in Qualifying 2...

• Sachsenring: Latest Moto2 Results
• Sachsenring: Latest Moto3 Results

Germany was the nadir of Francesco Bagnaia's 2022 world championship season, slipping 91 points from Fabio Quartararo after an early fall before fighting back to take the title in the second half of the year. Bagnaia returns with a 21-point lead over Marco Bezzecchi.

Sachsenring is Marc Marquez’s most successful circuit, with eleven wins at the German Grand Prix, including eight in the MotoGP class. Absent last season due to arm surgery, when Quartararo took victory, Marquez hasn’t been beaten at the tight and twisty anti-clockwise circuit since 2009 in 125cc.

Marquez is riding alone at Repsol Honda with team-mate Joan Mir sidelined by a hand injury at Mugello last weekend. LCR Honda's Alex Rins is also absent after fracturing his right tibia and fibula in Italy. The COTA winner won't be fit to return until after the summer break. Rins' team-mate Takaaki Nakagami has been handed a Kalex chassis for the first time this weekend.

GASGAS Tech3’s Pol Espargaro has abandoned a planned return in Germany and is again replaced by KTM test rider Jonas Folger, meaning a home rider will be taking part in the premier class. Espargaro is also thought unlikely to be fit for next weekend's Assen round.

Older brother Aleix, diagnosed with two broken bones in his right heel after struggling with bicycle injuries throughout the Mugello weekend, limped away from a crash at turn one after just ten minutes.