The exciting Saturday in Hohenstein-Ernstthal – allez les Bleus!
After two crashes on Friday and one on Saturday morning in FP3, Pol Espargaró was surprisingly the only Honda driver who had to go into Q2. After the second free practice session, he was still the best of the HRC group with the fifth-fastest time. Together with 3 Yamaha’s and two Suzuki’s, it was clear in the first qualifying that the Catalan would only be able to secure the ticket for Q2 with an absolute top performance. Except for a technical defect from Jack Miller, the FP4 ran without any significant incidents and Pol managed to make ends meet for once without a fall. Instead, his Honda colleague Alex Marquez stepped into the breach for him in turn 1 and had another crash in the last 10 minutes. The younger of the two “asparagus brothers”, on the other hand, had the sixth-best time in FP4 behind brother Aleix 5 minutes before the end. In the end, after a few faster times by other drivers, the Espargaró’s still held the top ten.
The Q1 of MotoGP: Second last starting position for Maverick – Rins and Pol in Q2
When it came down to the last two places in Q2, it was first Rins and Mir who were able to impress early on with their fast times. After that, Pol spoke up with the second-best time and a little later Binder, but only with P3. There was a slight delay in the first qualifying due to technical problems, which were not specified. It was clear to us that people had problems with timing, because even an hour after the end of Q2 of Moto3, the official ranking was still missing. The first Sachsenring event without an official spectator (we saw some onlookers who apparently had good relationships on the track) in Hohenstein-Ernstthal was a very special experience anyway. Usually there is hardly any getting through on the Grand Prix weekend in most places. With three minutes twenty to go, Pol was the man with the provisional best time and this time only Rins drove even faster at the end of Q1 and without cheers on the track, the two were the last duo in Q2. Savadori (Aprilia) and Yamaha Hope Morbidelli fell, as did Lecuona shortly before time ran out. Maverick Viñales failed miraculously, and his penultimate starting position was the biggest surprise of Q1.
The Q2 of MotoGP
After Marc Marquez had set the first fastest time, it was a little later Fabio Quartararo who topped the ranking at halftime. After that it was Miller who rode an attack, but the Australian failed because of the Frenchman’s time, but was at least P2 after that. This increased again shortly before the end, but his compatriot was a bit faster after that, but had a crash a little later in Turn 4. A little later, Takaaki Nakagami also crashed on Turn 1 and in the end it was a qualifying with lots of yellow flags in the last two minutes. Only Jack Miller passed the start-finish line shortly before the time ran out, but the Australian just missed row 1 at the end after a mistake in the finish curve. In addition to the two French, Aleix Espargaró will start the race from the front row on Sunday, followed by Miller with Marc Marquez and Miguel Oliveira.
The middle class qualifying
With Bo Bendsneyder, Marco Bezzecchi and Aron Canet, the three favorites in Q1 were clear, and these three were also in the named order at halftime in front of Albert Arenas. In the end, the four made it into Q2 and again the Swiss Tom Lüthi in third from last place was one of the biggest losers. In the second qualifying, it was World Championship leader Remy Gardner who set his first scent mark with 1’23.769 and was supposedly replaced by Fabio Di Giannantonio shortly after the end of the first third. But the Italian had committed one of the completely nonsensical track limit violations from the point of view of many fans and experts, whereupon his time was canceled immediately. A little later, however, he achieved a regular best time, which was topped by Gardner’s team-mate Raul Fernandez. At the end of the day, the three form the front row for the race. Lowes only made it into row three, and the Q2 went even worse for local hero Schrötter. The third of the 2019 Moto2 GP of Germany has to start from row 6 on Sunday.
The Moto3 qualifying with some surprises
Darryn Binder crashed on Turn 1 just before the end of Q1, but the South African had already set the best time before that and was safe in Q2. With Gabriel Rodrigo and Jeremy Alcoba, however, two of the supposed co-favorites just missed this. Deniz Öncü, Jaume Masia and Yuki Kunii, on the other hand, made it into the second qualifying, whereby the Turk fell in the first 5 minutes and Binder had to do without completely because his bike could not be restored in time. Without the brother of the MotoGP star Brad and the Tech 3 KTM riders, things got exciting again in the last 3 laps. Things went very badly for Kaito Toba and after his crash the Japanese grabbed the place that suggested a broken collarbone. Very close to his home country of the Czech Republic, Filip Salac made it to pole position and the front row is completed by Dennis Foggia and Tatsuki Suzuki. Behind them, John McPhee and Lorenzo Fellon will start the race together with the fallen Japanese Toba, if he should be fit. World Championship leader Alcoba only starts from P13, but of course he still has every chance of another podium in Moto3.
The starting grid of all 3 classes at a glance
The Sachsenring
World Championship stand in all classes after the 7th round at Barcelona
German Grand Prix schedule
Unless otherwise stated, this applies to all images (© MotoGP).
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