MotoGP: Bagnaia holds off Quartararo to grab Sachsenring pole

The Ducati Lenovo Team’s Francesco Bagnaia has been setting the hottest of pace at the Sachsenring, breaking the All Time Lap Record in both FP2 and FP3 before securing pole position on Saturday afternoon. He is not the only Ducati rider who will start on the front row in Sunday’s race either, with Prima Pramac Racing’s Johann Zarco having qualified third-quickest. Between the two of them, they have extended a remarkable run of form in qualifying for the Bologna manufacturer, which saw seven of its bikes make it into Q2 this weekend. Read up on that and more in ten things you need to know ahead of the Liqui Moly Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland.

1. Francesco Bagnaia has qualified on pole position for the ninth time in MotoGP™ and the third time this season, along with Spain and France. He will be aiming to win for the third time so far this year after doing so in Spain and Italy.

From his eight previous pole positions, Bagnaia has finished on the podium six times (including four wins) and crashed twice while fighting for the win (at the Emilia-Romagna GP last year and France this season).

3. The pole for Bagnaia is the fourth for a Ducati rider at the Sachsenring in MotoGP™, after those achieved by Casey Stoner (2007 and 2008) and Johann Zarco (2021).

4. Fabio Quartararo has qualified second as the top Yamaha rider for his fourth front row start of the season, along with Indonesia (when he was on pole), Spain (when he qualified second), and Catalunya (when he qualified third). He went on to finish on the podium in all of those races (including a win in Catalunya). The Frenchman will be aiming to win for the third time this year, adding to triumphs in Portugal and Catalunya.

This is Quartararo’s 40th front row in MotoGP™. In his 39 previous front-row starts, he went on to finish on the podium 22 times (including eight of his 10 premier class wins so far).

6. Thanks to the efforts of Bagnaia and Zarco at the Sachsenring, this is the 30th successive MotoGP™ race with at least one Ducati rider on the front row.

7. Aleix Espargaro, who crashed in FP4, has qualified fourth as the top Aprilia rider. This is the seventh time so far this year he has qualified within the top six. His best MotoGP™ result at the Sachsenring is sixth in 2014 (when he started from fourth as well).

8. After going through Q1, Fabio Di Giannantonio has qualified fifth as the top rookie. That equals his second-best qualifying result of the season so far, last time out in Catalunya, and comes after he was on pole position in Italy.

9. Maverick Viñales has qualified ninth, marking his third-best qualifying result since he joined Aprilia, after Argentina earlier this year (when he qualified fifth) and Catalunya (when he qualified eighth). He will be aiming to take his first podium with Aprilia.

Qualifying Results

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time	Behind
1	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1’19.931	0.000
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
13	Pol Espargaro	Honda	1’20.604	0.297
14	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	1’20.656	0.349
15	Brad Binder	KTM	1’20.757	0.450
16	Alex Marquez	Honda	1’20.888	0.581
17	Enea Bastianini	Ducati	1’20.905	0.598
18	Stefan Bradl	Honda	1’20.908	0.601
19	Andrea Dovizioso	Yamaha	1’20.965	0.658
20	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	1’21.020	0.713
21	Remy Gardner	KTM	1’21.089	0.782
22	Raúl Fernández	KTM	1’21.322	1.015
23	Darryn Binder	Yamaha	1’21.322	1.015