Seventh pole for World Championship leader, with Dani Pedrosa second on the grid.
The Repsol Honda Team again showed its great potential on the second day of practice for the German Grand Prix, with both Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa performing impressively. Marquez took his seventh pole position of the year, from nine races. He was seconded by Pedrosa, who was fighting for pole when he crashed on his final hot lap attempt.
In the morning session, both Repsol Honda Team riders continued working on the setup of their Honda bikes with Sunday’s race in mind. Marquez completed 23 laps and was third fastest in the practice session, in which teammate Pedrosa, was seventh – 0.505s behind.
In the fourth practice session, the World Championship leader was again fastest, this time with Pedrosa second quickest. Marquez was gunning for pole position throughout the 15 minute qualifying session, which Pedrosa initially led with a 1’21.233 lap.
Marquez went out with his second soft tyre to beat that lap, and did so with the fastest ever time clocked at the Sachsenring –breaking Casey Stoner’s previous record from 2008. An unbeatable time of 1’20.937 was enough to give him pole. Trying to best that time, Pedrosa used his second soft option and went out for a final stint, but fell at Turn 1 on the brakes. Fortunately the crash was only a light one, and both Repsol Honda riders will be able to lead the starting grid at the German Grand Prix.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
1st – 1:20.937, 42 laps, 154 km
“The weekend has been affected by the crash I suffered yesterday, but I kept my nerve and little by little we’ve been getting better. I felt good yesterday afternoon and I was much better this morning. In the few laps I did in FP4, I could see that we had a good pace and a chance to fight for pole position. With the first tyre I didn’t feel entirely comfortable, but with the second one I had a good feeling and could see that there was good grip – so I decided to push a little more and put in a strong lap. Starting from the front is important for the race tomorrow, because this is a circuit where it is difficult to overtake. We will try and keep up the pace from practice, which I think has been good”.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
2nd -1:21.233, 36 laps, 132 km
“It was a good qualifying session and we had a good pace, despite the crash which was my fault when I think I hit a bump under braking but luckily I’m fine. I’m very grateful to my mechanics for the work they did yesterday to get the bike back running again after my crash in FP2. Tomorrow we will try to do our best, position ourselves well from the start, make a good tyre choice and hope the weather is kind to us! Our setup is definitely good, so I hope to have a good race”.
