BERLIN (Reuters) – Honda’s MotoGP champion Marc Marquez completed a decade of German Grand Prix pole positions with his 10th in a row in all categories at the Sachsenring on Saturday.
The king of the ring lapped the Saxony circuit near Chemnitz with a fastest lap of one minute 20.195 seconds, 0.205 quicker than Petronas Yamaha’s 20-year-old French rookie Fabio Quartararo.
Quartararo, who dislocated his shoulder in morning practice, had been going for his third successive pole after starting from the top slot in Barcelona and the Dutch TT at Assen.
Works Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales completed the front row of the grid.
Marquez’s run of poles at the Sachsenring started in 2010 when he was competing in the 125cc category (now Moto3). The Spaniard then took pole in Moto2 in 2011 and 2012 and is on a sequence of seven in MotoGP.
Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, who fractured his tibia and tore an anterior cruciate ligament in a cycling incident earlier in the week, qualified sixth for LCR Honda.
Ducati’s Italian title contender Andrea Dovizioso, 44 points behind Marquez after eight of 19 races, will start from 13th on the grid. Italian great Valentino Rossi qualified 11th for Yamaha.
Germany’s Stefan Bradl, filling for the injured Jorge Lorenzo as Marquez’s team mate, will start 14th.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ed Osmond)
