Freezing temperatures, a very tricky track, “whatever you want” falls, front tires that don’t heat up; Here are roughly the very difficult conditions which put the Yamahas under pressure yesterday.
This morning, with the track only going from 16 to 24°, things were already going quite differently and Iwata's bikes presented much better figures, if we except the one sporting the #99.
This afternoon, the track is at 40°…
Here are the references available at the start of this third session of free practice and qualifying:
| Sachsenring | 2015 | 2016 |
| FP1 | 1'21.766 Marc Marquez | 1'23.702 Andrea Iannone |
| FP2 | 1'21.621 Marc Marquez | 1'22.161 Maverick Vinales |
| FP3 | 1'21.083 Marc Marquez | 1'21.552 Marc Marquez |
| FP4 | 1'21.334 Marc Marquez | |
| Q | 1'20.336 Marc Marquez | |
| Course | Marquez/Pedrosa/Rossi | |
| Track record | 1'20.336 Marc Marquez |
FP4: The last chance for Jorge Lorenzo to find the feeling to get out of Q1.
Unlike yesterday, he uses his M1 with the traditional tank.
The session begins under the domination of Suzuki, Alex Espargaro for once gaining the upper hand over his teammate. We then turn in 1'23.0.
Pedrosa and Rossi then lowered the pace to 1'22.7, imitated by Iannone, then overtaken by Aleix Espargaro.
Just before the end of this first run, Marquez (Tender front / Medium rear) went from 17th to 2nd, then first, in 1'22.131.
We then find Marquez, A. Espargaro, Rossi, Iannone, Pedrosa, Petrucci, Dovizioso, P. Espargaro, Crutchlow and Redding.
Lorenzo is 14th, at 1,2 seconds, a gap which he reduced to 0,7 seconds at the start of the last 10 minutes.
The final packaging sees Pedrosa and the official Ducati lights the partials in red, and Iannone take command in 1'22.005.
Big heat from Marquez at turn #11 while Iannone lights the inclination indicator in red, with a maximum of 61°.
Q1: Will Lorenzo move on to Q2?
This is the only question that arises at the start of this qualification.
Crutchlow, Petrucci, even Miller and Smith, faster overall in the first three sessions" would of course tend to answer "no", especially from the first two, also faster in FP4...
When the reds go out, we are still working on Lorenzo's machine, who hits the track 2 minutes after everyone else.
Petrucci poses a first option on Q2 in 1'22.238, but Lorenzo immediately regained its splendor in 1'21.737.
During the second run, Crutchlow took the advantage over Petrucci, by 2 tenths, before the latter recorded the best time of the session, in 1'21.712.
Huge fall for Lorenzo at turn #8 when he was going to set the best time! The motorcycle is destroyed but the pilot is not injured; it's the race to prepare his second motorcycle at Yamaha.
Finally, Petrucci and Lorenzo therefore move on to Q2.
Q2: From the start of the session, Barbera sticks to Marquez's wheel but it is another duo, that of the Espargaro brothers who provisionally set a first milestone in 1'22.358.
Important element of this start of the session, Andrea Iannone rolls without forcing but falls without gravity. During this time, Barbera takes provisional pole in 1'21.633, still in the wake of Marquez. The latter increases the pace a little, still followed by the Avintia driver.
Halfway through the session, Red is 3rd at 85 thousandths, Pedrosa 6th, Lorenzo 7th, Iannone 11th.
During the second and final run, Lorenzo falls for the 3rd time this weekend, this time at turn #1! How can we maintain confidence in these conditions?
Iannone made the effort after his mistake but could not do better than 8th.
The first line consists of Marquez, the huge favorite for Sunday who thus achieves his 7th pole position in a row on the Sachsenring, faster by 4 tenths than Barbera and Rossi.
Danilo Petrucci, Pol Espargaro and Maverick Vinales make up the second.
| Pos | Pile | Country | Team | Temps | deviations | |||
| 1 | Marc Márquez | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | 1'21.160 | ||||
| 2 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Avintia Racing | 1'21.572 | 0.412 | |||
| 3 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Yamaha Motor Racing | 1'21.666 | 0.506 | |||
| 4 | Danilo PETRUCCI | ITA | OCTO Yakhnich bow | 1'21.666 | 0.506 | |||
| 5 | Pol Espargaró | SPA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1'21.738 | 0.578 | |||
| 6 | Maverick VIÑALES | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1'21.784 | 0.624 | |||
| 7 | Andrea Dovizioso | ITA | Ducati Team | 1'21.858 | 0.698 | |||
| 8 | Aleix Espargaro | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1'21.883 | 0.723 | |||
| 9 | Andrea Iannone | ITA | Ducati Team | 1'21.890 | 0.730 | |||
| 10 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | 1'21.892 | 0.732 | |||
| 11 | Jorge Lorenzo | SPA | Yamaha Motor Racing | 1'22.088 | 0.928 | |||
| 12 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | 1'22.346 | 1.186 |
| 13 | Cal Crutchlow | GBR | Honda LCR | 1'21.783 | |
| 14 | Bradley SMITH | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1'21.994 | |
| 15 | Scott REDDING | GBR | OCTO Yakhnich bow | 1'22.236 | |
| 16 | Jack Miller | AUS | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | 1'22.382 | |
| 17 | Stefan BRADL | GER | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1'22.493 | |
| 18 | Eugene LAVERTY | IRL | Pull & Bear Aspar Ducati Team | 1'22.567 | |
| 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1'22.670 | |
| 20 | Loris BAZ | FRA | Avintia Racing | 1'22.860 | |
| 21 | Tito RABAT | SPA | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | 1'23.075 |
