Rain, rain and more rain. Marc Marquez snatched pole position in a treacherous qualifying fight against Johann Zarco – while championship leader Francesco Bagnaia endured a disaster.
With track conditions worsening just before Q2, the stage was set for a messy shootout. The pitlane opened under heavy rain at 11:15, with riders scrambling for early banker laps before conditions further deteriorated.
As predicted, those coming through Q1 – Johann Zarco and Maverick Viñales – carried a crucial advantage, having already tested the grip levels for 20 minutes.
While the first qualifying session of the day, ti was Marc Marquez who wrote the script in the early parts of Q2.
Laying down one statement lap after the other, the Spaniard quickly saw himself leading the session being more than a full second clear at the top of the timesheet.
With the rest struggling to match the championship leader through the first ten minutes of the session, he looked untouchable. Then came Zarco.
With two minutes left on the clock and one final attempt beckoning, the Frenchman pushed to within 0.065 seconds of Marquez fastest lap time.
However, seeing that despite being a second clear earlier, his provisional pole position was under attack, the championship leader responded resulting in straight 1v1 shootout on the final lap.
With both – Marquez and Zarco – on red-sector laps as the clock ran out, it was the Spaniard’s 1m27.811s that proved a tenth and a half better thanks to a Marquez-typical strong final sector.
Behind the lead duo, Marco Bezzecchi steadily climbed the order, first slotting into third with a 1:28.232 on lap 9 – 0.270s down on Zarco.
Franco Morbidelli, within reach of the final spot on the front row on his final attem of the session eventually had to settls for fourth when he lost the front in turn eight.
Morbidelli was on corse for pole but Turn 8 caught him out 💥#GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/LNsOWSywGS
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) July 12, 2025
Rookie Pedro Acosta delivered another impressive Saturday, fifth fastest and just under a second off Marquez, while Alex Marquez secured sixth for Gresini.
Further back, Fabio Quartararo led the charge for Yamaha in 7th ahead of Fabio di Giannantonio and Jack Miller.
Brad Binder rounded out the top ten with Bagnaia suffering big time in the wet conditions of Q2.
Struggling from the get-go, the Italian never managed anything close to a competitive lap time and finished qualifying just shy of a full two seconds off his teammate in 11th.
Maverick Vinales had made it through Q1 despite a lost final lap, but ruined all chances on a solid grid position when he immediately highsided at Turn 4 at the start of Q2.
Another highside 👀
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) July 12, 2025
This time @jackmilleraus has been caught out 💥#GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/s9XRl6gw8Z
He was quickly up on his feet, but headed to the medical centre and later to the local hospital instead of rejoining the session. Should he not be declared unfit the Spaniard will start 12th on the grid.
Jack Miller had an almost carbon copy crash at the same corner minutes after Vinales, but managed to rejoin the session on his spare bike.
