Sachsenring MotoGP: Marquez denies Petrucci pole by 0.025s

Marquez was only third after the first set of flyers as Maverick Vinales led the way, his 1m20.441s two thousandths of a second better than Lorenzo's effort in second.

During the mid-session lull, Marquez stayed out for an extra flyer and while he managed to slightly improve, he was still third, 0.089s adrift.

When the second runs began, Lorenzo and Danilo Petrucci were first to improve as they moved up to first and second, the Pramac Ducati rider taking the lead with a new lap record of 1m20.295s.

Marquez's first attempt was good enough to slot between the Ducati duo, but his effort was thwarted by an impressive save at the Turn 3 right-hander.

The Honda rider had time for one last lap and he improved just enough to steal first place from Petrucci, beating him by 0.025s with a 1m20.270s.

Lorenzo was third, 0.057s adrift Marquez, while Vinales didn't improve in his second run and had to settle for fourth on the leading Yamaha.

He will share the second row with Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso, who had to fight his way through Q1, and his teammate Valentino Rossi.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow was four tenths slower than Marquez in seventh as Andrea Iannone led Suzuki's efforts in eighth.

Alvaro Bautista and Dani Pedrosa completed the top 10 as Alex Rins and Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the order in Q2.

Q1: Dovizioso and Nakagami advance

Dovizioso and Johann Zarco were the biggest names to take part in Q1 but it was Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro leading the way before the mid-session pitstops.

But Dovizioso, who was only 0.02s slower than Espargaro, went three tenths quicker and topped Q1 with a 1m20.751s.

Espargaro couldn't improve his time and in the end had to settle for third as he was outpaced by the second LCR bike of Nakagami by 0.009s.

The Aprilia rider will only start the German GP from 19th as he received a six-place grid penalty for impeding Marc Marquez in FP3.

Zarco was only fourth in Q2 and will start 13th, ahead of Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller and KTM duo Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith.

Local rider Stefan Bradl, who is standing in for the injured Franco Morbidelli, was 11th and will line up on the grid in 21st, one place ahead of Marc VDS teammate Tom Luthi.

Q2 results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'20.270
2	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'20.295	0.025
3	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1'20.327	0.057
4	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'20.441	0.171
5	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'20.444	0.174
6	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'20.532	0.262
7	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'20.675	0.405
8	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1'20.682	0.412
9	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'20.700	0.430
10	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'20.831	0.561
11	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'20.847	0.577
12	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'20.938	0.668

Q1 results

Grid	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'20.751
	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'20.963	0.212
13	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'20.972	0.221
14	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'21.059	0.308
15	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'21.183	0.432
16	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'21.242	0.491
17	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	1'21.287	0.536
18	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Yamaha	1'21.460	0.709
19	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'21.546	0.795
20	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	1'21.749	0.998
21	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	1'21.802	1.051
22	12	Thomas Luthi	Honda	1'22.012	1.261
23	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'22.159	1.408
24	10	Xavier Simeon	Ducati	1'22.709	1.958