German MotoGP: Bagnaia narrowly beats Quartararo to pole

The short nature of the Sachsenring led Bagnaia to employ a three-run strategy in qualifying, but he exited pitlane a few seconds too late on his last fresh soft rear to get his third time attack run in.  

Despite this, no one challenged the 1m19.931s he’d already set to claim his third pole of the 2022 season.  

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Due to a power outage at the circuit just ahead of FP4, qualifying was delayed by almost half an hour. 

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro set the early pace with a 1m20.413s having suffered a small crash in the preceding FP4 session, but was quickly deposed by practice pacesetter Bagnaia with a 1m20.098s.  

Bagnaia – who set a new outright lap record in FP3 on Saturday morning – then headed to the pits for the first time for a new soft slick with just under 10 minutes of the 15-minute Q2 remaining.  

On his first flying lap on his second tyre, Bagnaia fired in a 1m20.064s before carrying on to set a 1m19.931s.  

He pitted again for a final soft tyre, but left pitlane just a couple of seconds too late to be able to get a final effort in.  

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo had cut Bagnaia’s advantage down to 0.076 seconds on his penultimate flying lap.  

But the Yamaha rider had nothing more to offer on his final tour, while yellow flags at Turn 1 for Takaaki Nakagami’s (LCR Honda) crash stopped a number of riders from attempting to challenge Bagnaia.  

Despite missing his final lap, Bagnaia held onto top spot from Quartararo, while Pramac’s Johann Zarco was third on his Ducati.  

Aleix Espargaro heads row two on his Aprilia ahead of Gresini rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, who topped Q1.  

Jack Miller was sixth on the second factory Ducati, but is facing a potential grid penalty after crashing under yellow flags in FP4. The incident is currently under investigation.  

Luca Marini was seventh on his VR46 Ducati ahead of Jorge Martin on the second of the Pramac GP22s, with Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) and Nakagami completing the top 10.  

Marco Bezzecchi followed Di Giannantonio through Q1 on the second VR46 Ductai, but could only convert that to 11th ahead of a frustrated Joan Mir on the Suzuki in 12th. 

Honda’s Pol Espargaro was denied a place in Q2 by just 0.004s to Bezzecchi, though it was Enea Bastianini in 17th who proved to be the biggest shock exit in Q1.  

The three-time race winner and championship contender has struggled all weekend at the Sachsenring and failed to find any gains in qualifying, the Gresini rider almost six tenths off his rookie teammate Di Giannantonio in Q1. 

Bastianini will start 17th behind LCR’s Alex Marquez and KTM duo Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira, while Marc Marquez’s stand-in Stefan Bradl was 18th on the sister factory team Honda.  

Andrea Dovizioso struggled to 19th on his RNF Racing Yamaha ahead of factory Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli, with the field completed by rookie trio Remy Gardner (Tech 3), Raul Fernandez (Tech 3) and Darryn Binder (RNF). 

The 2022 MotoGP German GP is due to get underway at 2pm local time on Sunday.  

German MotoGP - Q2 results:

Cla	Rider		Bike	Time	Gap
1	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	1'19.931
2	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	1'20.007	0.076
3	Johann Zarco		Ducati	1'20.030	0.099
4	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	1'20.120	0.189
5	Fabio Di Giannantonio		Ducati	1'20.128	0.197
6	Jack Miller		Ducati	1'20.150	0.219
7	Luca Marini		Ducati	1'20.168	0.237
8	Jorge Martin		Ducati	1'20.219	0.288
9	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	1'20.468	0.537
10	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	1'20.562	0.631
11	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	1'20.593	0.662
12	Joan Mir		Suzuki	1'20.732	0.801
View full results

German MotoGP - Q1 results:

Cla	Rider		Bike	Time	Gap
1	Fabio Di Giannantonio		Ducati	1'20.307
2	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	1'20.600	0.293
3	Pol Espargaro		Honda	1'20.604	0.297
4	Miguel Oliveira		KTM	1'20.656	0.349
5	Brad Binder		KTM	1'20.757	0.450
6	Alex Marquez		Honda	1'20.888	0.581
7	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	1'20.905	0.598
8	Stefan Bradl		Honda	1'20.908	0.601
9	Andrea Dovizioso		Yamaha	1'20.965	0.658
10	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	1'21.020	0.713
11	Remy Gardner		KTM	1'21.089	0.782
12	Raúl Fernández		KTM	1'21.322	1.015
13	Darryn Binder		Yamaha	1'21.322	1.015
View full results