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Lewis Duncan

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.  

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

German MotoGP - Q1 results:

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