Martin beats Trackhouse Aprilia duo to pole, Marquez 13th

Jorge Martin claimed pole position for MotoGP’s German Grand Prix ahead of Trackhouse Aprilia duo Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, as Marc Marquez qualified 13th after being knocked out in Q1.

Pramac Ducati rider Martin broke the circuit lap record with a 1m19.423s on his first run around the Sachsenring, which would remain unbeaten as a number of yellow flags prevented rivals from improving their times at the close of the 15-minute shootout.

This was his fourth pole position of the year and followed just a week after factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia dominated the Assen weekend from start to finish to close within 10 points of him in the standings.

Bagnaia had to abort a flying lap twice in the final stages, first for a horrifying highside for Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales and again for Gresini rider Alex Marquez’s crash, leaving him fourth on the grid for both the sprint and the grand prix.

Two riders who took advantage of the situation were Trackhouse Aprilia pair Oliveira and Fernandez, who had already looked rapid in the run-up to Q2.

Oliveira’s time of 1m19.471s from his first run was good enough to take second place, as he finished just 0.048s behind Martin, while Fernandez came from Q1 to make it two Trackhouse entries on the front row in third – despite still riding last year’s RS-GP bike.

Fifth place behind Bagnaia went to Alex Marquez despite his late crash, while Franco Morbidelli lapped 0.523s behind his pole-sitting team-mate Martin to complete the second row of the grid.

Aprilia rider Vinales, one of the favourites for pole position after breaking the lap record on Friday, ended up seventh after being thrown off his bike in a nasty highside at Turn 10. Vinales was visibly shaken after the accident, as team-mate Aleix Espargaro watched on from the garage after withdrawing from the weekend.

Fabio di Giannantonio was among a few riders who were able to improve on their second run as he put his VR46 Ducati to eighth, ahead of factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini and GasGas Tech3 rider Pedro Acosta, who was once again the top qualifier on the KTM.

Acosta was closely followed by factory KTM rider Brad Binder, while VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi took 12th after narrowly making it into the second part of qualifying.

Gresini’s Marc Marquez was the first rider to be eliminated in Q1 and will line up 13th at the…