Marc Marquez edged a ninth consecutive pole at the German MotoGP as half a second covered the top three at the Sachsenring.

Marquez stretched his lead to 41 points with his victory in Assen last time out and the four-time world champion gave himself a golden opportunity to further extend that advantage on Saturday.

The Repsol Honda rider denied Danilo Petrucci by just 0.025secs, with Jorge Lorenzo qualifying in third spot.

Marquez was third after the first set of flyers, but the Spaniard pipped Petrucci with a blistering final lap of one minute, 20.270 seconds to secure his place at the front of the grid once more.

Petrucci looked to have done enough to thwart Marquez, but the number 93 delivered under pressure, as he has done time and time again.

Maverick Vinales will start Sunday's race in fourth spot, with Andrea Dovizioso also on the second row in fifth and Valentino Rossi sixth.

Marquez told BT Sport: "I said this weekend will be closer than the other ones. When you have good weather everybody can find the best pace and attack.

"I saw Danilo did a really good lap time but we tried to push. The last lap in the first sector I made a little mistake but I said I need to keep pushing and that last 20 milliseconds was enough."