Championship leader Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Moto3) secured his sixth pole of 2018 thanks to his 1:28.434 at the Pramac Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, beating Marcos Ramirez (Bester Capital Dubai) by 0.060 seconds as the Spaniard earned his first front row start in the lightweight class, with Enea Bastianini (Leopard Racing) rounding out the front row in third.
Under sunny Sachsenring skies, it was Martin who once again dominated the Saturday afternoon session as he took his sixth pole in the last seven races. Ramirez claimed a podium finish at the Sachsenring last season and the Spaniard put himself right in contention to repeat the same result in 2018 after grabbing second place on his final run, with Bastianini a further 0.005 back in third.
After a nasty crash at Turn 3 in FP3, Jaume Masia (Bester Capital Dubai) bounced back to secure his best ever Grand Prix qualifying result in fourth – a fantastic end to the session for the rookie. Behind the Spaniard was compatriot Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0), who qualifies fifth on the grid despite a highside at on the exit of Turn 1 with just over 15 minutes to go. Rounding out the second row of the grid in sixth was Tony Arbolino (Marinelli Snipers Team) who qualifies well again at the Sachsenring after his P5 last season – just 0.005 back from Canet.
#Moto3 Qualifying ????
— MotoGP™???????????? (@MotoGP) July 14, 2018
Guess who? @88jorgemartin takes his 6th pole of the season! @24Marcosramirez grabs his first row start in second with @eneabastianini ✊#GermanGP pic.twitter.com/PghuFe8fKc
Marco Bezzecchi (Redox PrustelGP) recovered from an early crash at Turn 3 in qualifying to spearhead the third row of the grid in seventh – 0.349 back from Championship rival Martin, with John McPhee (CIP – Green Power) in eighth. Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas Sprinta Racing) had a solid session in ninth, qualifying as the leading Japanese rider, with Fabio Di Giannantonio (Del Conca Gresini Moto3) rounding out a top ten on Saturday that was covered by just 0.457 seconds.
On his first outing at the Sachsenring, Albert Arenas (Angel Nieto Team) qualified well in P11 after briefly sitting inside the top three, with Gabriel Rodrigo (RBA BOE Skull Rider) also dropping from a front row start to outside the top ten in P12. German Philipp Oettl (Sudmetal Schedl GP Racing) will launch from P13 at his home Grand Prix after slipping down the order in the latter stages, with stand-in rider Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) impressing in 14th, just over half a second back from pole.
FP3’s quickest rider Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing) crashed in qualifying at Turn 1 – rider ok.
So, it’s Martin who once again is the king of qualifying in the lightweight class, his 15th career pole, who can stop him from converting P1 on the grid to victory on Sunday? Tune in for the Moto3™ race at 11:00 local time (GMT +2) to find out.