Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol rider Marc Márquez clinched the third pole position of his Moto2 career ahead of Sunday's race at the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, chased by Stefan Bradl and Aleix Espargaró.
Championship leader Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) held provisional pole in the first minutes of the qualifying session, but was moved to second when Espargaró (Pons HP 40) took the lead. Espargaró then dominated the session until Márquez stole provisional pole in the last three minutes, then improved his time to cement the position with a lap time of 1'24.733. Meanwhile the German rider, who finished ninth in his home Moto2 race last year, improved his time in the last seconds to post a 1'24.862, just 0.038s quicker than Espargaró, moving the Spaniard into third spot on the grid.
With the top 25 riders all within one second of each other, the battles for the second and third row positions was stiff, with Italian rider Michele Pirro (Gresini Racing Moto2) landing the leading spot on the second row. Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) took fifth in a superb return to competition, with Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) completing the second row. Third row is comprised of Belgian Xavier Simeon (Tech 3 B) and Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing), with Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Racing) taking the final spot before a fall at the end of the session. Yonny Hernández (Blusens-STX), Max Neukirchner (MZ Racing) and Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) make up the fourth row, while Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing), who was fastest in the morning session, crashed in the qualifying session but was able to re-enter and qualify 13th.