Marquez Denies Bradl Pole Position on Home Soil

Marc Marquez spoiled the party for the German supporters by beating Stefan Bradl to pole position on his home turf at the Sachsenring. As expected, the times were incredibly close but Marquez had the upper hand from the moment he hit the front seven minutes from the end, deposing Aleix Espargaro.

The Pons Kalex rider searched for the 0.015s required to propel him back onto pole position but as he was doing that, Marquez went faster still, with his 1:24.733 proving good enough to secure a third pole of the season.

Bradl looked to provide his compatriots with the perfect finale but he took the chequered flag 0.129s shy of his nearest championship rival. His final lap was still good enough to lift him above Espargaro and onto the middle of the front row.

Michele Pirro will line up a career-best fourth on the Gresini Moriwaki while Julian Simon will line-up in the middle of the second row on his first appearance since breaking his leg at Catalunya six weeks ago. Alex De Angelis rounds out the third row after waiting until the very end of qualifying to better his Friday morning time.

Mika Kallio has bad memories of this circuit after tangling with Randy de Puniet in the MotoGP race last year but the Finn will start tomorrow's race from a solid eighth. Either side of him will be two of the Tech 3 Mistral machines with Xavier Simeon impressing again in seventh and Bradley Smith qualifying ninth.

The Briton did get up to fourth at the halfway mark but ran off into the gravel at turn eight on his final flying lap, making light contact with the tyre barrier as he tried to find a way past Mattia Pasini.

Local rider Max Neukirchner will start from a career high of 11^th on the grid with Thomas Luthi and Yuki Takahashi right behind him despite each topping an earlier practice session. Simone Corsi was another big name to explore the gravel traps on his way to 21^st while Scott Redding will be disappointed with 23^rd.

Along with Smith and Corsi, there were also off-track excursions for Randy Krummenacher and Kenny Noyes but the biggest of all came from Jules Cluzel who lost control of his Suter at high speed. Although he escaped serious injury, the Frenchman did limp away after being struck by his errant motorcycle.

Qualifying Result: