QUALIFYING – GERMAN GP 2017

The more things change … almost, with Danilo Petrucci making a close and brilliant attack on his first pole position in ever-changing weather conditions in Germany. But at the last Marc Marquez was not to be denied, for an eighth successive pole at the pocket-handkerchief Sachsenring circuit.

The Repsol Honda rider was barely a tenth ahead of Petrucci’s Pramac Ducati on a wet but drying track, when the chequered flag came out at the end of Q2. But he was still circulating and going faster still, to underline it by 0.16 of a second.

“In the beginning I was cautious, then I realised that with less water there was less grip [with the rain tyres], and I pushed at the end,” he said. “We need to understand all these conditions, in case there is a flag-to-flag race.

Petrucci had fallen in FP3 and had to come through from Q1. Unusually this was an advantage, as he was familiar with the track conditions in Q2. “I don’t know if I could have been on the front row in the dry,” he affirmed.

Third-placed Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) was half a second down; while Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) missed the front row by less than one tenth. “Last week was very difficult in both wet and dry for me,” said Pedrosa, who finished 13th at Assen. “Now I am happy because I am riding well in both conditions. The front row is very important here because the first corners are very tight.”

A dry start to the day didn’t last past Moto3 qualifying after lunch, and for the rest of the afternoon a series of drenching showers passed through, interrupted by spells of sunshine.

The resurfaced track, already praised for high grip levels in both wet and dry, also proved very quick-drying, but both MotoGP qualifying sessions were wet throughout, and the subsequent Moto2 never quite dry enough for slick tyres.

Q1 was mainly streaming wet, and an exciting preview to the main session. Australian Jack Miller (EG-VDS Honda) had led, and was still second when the flag fell (to Petrucci), only to be denied as he waited in the pit, the rain now falling heavily. In spite of that, he was narrowly displaced by Pol Espargaro’s Red Bull KTM, going through to join the top ten for the second time in the Austrian bike’s first season.

The track stayed wet through Q2, and Monster Yamaha rider Jonas Folger delighted his fellow-German fans by being the first to top the sheets. The factory Movistar Yamaha riders, however, were at sea.

But Marquez was coming, and though Petrucci led until the last two minutes, the Honda rider was unstoppable.

Folger was fifth, in the middle of row two, which was completed by Jorge Lorenzo’s factory Ducati.

Pol Espargaro led row three from brother Aleix’s Aprilia and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha), whose late bid on a medium (rather than a hard) wet rear tyre had yielded only a handful of places. He complained of the unpredictability of performance – of either chassis or tyres – from one circuit to the next.Points leader Andrea Dovizioso was tenth, struggling to find balance and front-wheel grip; only then Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha), suffering wheelspin on corner exit; with Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Ducati) 12th.

Teams were preparing for a repeat of last year’s bike-change flag-to-flag race, which went from wet to dry, and was won (his seventh German win in a row) by Marquez after a canny early switch to slicks.