Marc Marquez led a front-row lockout for Ducati at the German Grand Prix, as Aprilia star Marco Bezzecchi suffered another blow to his MotoGP title hopes with an early crash in qualifying.
Marquez eclipsed the all-time circuit record at the Sachsenring on his final run to seal his third pole position of the 2026 season, with his brother Alex Marquez qualifying less than a tenth behind in second.
Fabio di Giannantonio ended up third after challenging for pole position for much of it, as Ducati comfortably edged out Aprilia in the grid-deciding session.
As the second part of qualifying began, reigning champion Marquez set the initial benchmark on the factory Ducati, but di Giannantonio quickly beat his time to go to the top of the timesheets.
There was drama for Aprilia in the first four minutes of qualifying when Bezzecchi was sent flying off his bike and barrel rolling over the gravel trap at Turn 7, having just set the third fastest lap behind the Ducatis.
The Italian was able to get back on his feet without assistance from marshals, but was clearly in pain as he limped back to the service lane.
Raul Fernandez crucially avoided yellow flags deployed in the wake of Bezzecchi’s crash to go quickest, posting a time of 1m19.262s on the Trackhouse Aprilia.
The Marquez brothers gradually reduced Fernandez’s advantage on their next flying laps, but it wasn’t until the final six minutes that he was dispatched from the top, di Giannantonio going quicker with a 1m19.188s.
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
However, Marc Marquez still had something extra in the bag for his final run, the factory Ducati rider smashing the circuit record with a 1m19.041s flyer with three minutes remaining.
The 33-year-old held on to the top spot as the clock ticked to zero, while his younger brother Alex managed to deliver a late improvement on the sole Gresini bike to push di Giannantonio down to third.
Fernandez led Aprilia’s charge in fourth, with Trackhouse team-mate Ai Ogura ending up just behind him in fifth.
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo came all the way from Q1 to qualify a promising sixth, beating the Ducati of VR46 rider Franco Morbidelli. The latter qualified seventh but will start Sunday’s race from 10th on the grid after picking up a penalty for impeding Pedro Acosta in qualifying.
It was a tough qualifying for the factory Aprilia team, with Bezzecchi not returning to the track after his crash and Jorge Martin unable to improve his time in the second run. The duo qualified eighth and ninth respectively, ahead of KTM’s Acosta, but all three will move up a place following Morbidelli’s penalty.
Meanwhile, Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia could only muster the 11th fastest time in Q2 after topping the opening leg of qualifying, while Jack Miller ended up 12th for Pramac Yamaha.
Honda’s Joan Mir secured a provisional spot into Q2 but was bumped out by Quartararo in the final run, ending up 13th on the grid ahead of team-mate Luca Marini. The latter seemed on course to set the fastest lap in Q1, only to lose a heap of time in the final sector.
LCR rookie Diogo Moreira qualified 15th at the Sachsenring but will drop three places in Sunday’s race for impeding Marini in practice. That would put him behind the KTMs of Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini, as well as the Pramac Yamaha of Toprak Razgatlioglu, in 18th.
Alex Rins (Yamaha) and Maverick Vinales (Tech3) struggled to 19th and 20th respectively, while Johann Zarco’s stand-in Cal Crutchlow propped up the depleted 21-bike grid in the absence of Gresini sophomore Fermin Aldeguer.
MotoGP German GP qualifying results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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