After skipping last year’s race due to the pandemic, the Sachsenring host once again the German GP, as the 8th race of this year’s calendar.

The first qualy session saw quite a bumpy start. As some of the boxes were short of electric power and cause the session to be delayed for 20 minutes. The first group of riders saw Mir, Rins, Viñales and Morbidelli as the main candidates to advance through next session.

First half was a constant change on the standings between Mir, Rins and Pol Espargaro. With Viñales, Morbidelli and Binder closely on contention; Some incidents were happening on track, like Savadori losing control with 5 minutes to go.
Last attempts were on and it became a 3-bike showdown between Rins, Mir and Pol Espargaro, as they were constanly switching places on the last minutes. Eventually, it was Rins and Pol Espargaro who took the two places on Q2. Meanwhile Viñakes has to start from the 21th on the grid.

Q1 Results:

13. Brad Binder /// 14. Luca Marini /// 15. Enea Bastianini /// 16. Valentino Rossi /// 17. Joan Mir
18. Franco Morbidelli /// 19. Danilo Petrucci /// 20. Iker Lecuona
21. Maverick Viñales /// 22. Lorenzo Savadori

Second qualy session started and another battle for pole was on track. First time on a long time that Marquez was on provisional pole after a hard year and a half, eventuslly Fabio Quartararo took his place on the first minutes of the session, with Jorge Martin on 3rd. On the last stint, some riders made a late arrival on the front row positions like Jack Miller, Johan Zarco and Aleix Espargaro.

Zarco was 1st with a minute to go, but the Frenchman went to the gravel on a fast attempt, even as it sounds bad, it actually helped him to secure the pole position as the rest fo the riders couldn’t end their fast lap because of the yellow flags. So Quartararo ends his 5-pole streak by ending on 2nd and Aleix Espargaro makes a big front row start from Aprilia

Q2 Results:

1. Johann Zarco /// 2. Fabio Quartararo /// 3. Aleix Espargaró
4. Jack Miller /// 5. Marc Marquez /// 6. Miguel Oliveira
7. Jorge Martín /// 8. Pol Espargaro /// 9. Takaaki Nakagami
10. Francesco Bagnaia /// 11. Álex Rins /// 12. Alex Marquez

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Quite a unusual qualy that saws a Ducati leading the field after a Yamaha did it on the last 5 times. Also to remark how diverse is the field, as the top 6 riders are from 6 different teams. We’ll see tomorrow if Zarco can turn that unexpected pole on a big result that could shake up the standings on the championship.