Marc Marquez ended Friday for the German Grand Prix on top, as three Ducati riders finished inside the top four in practice.
The reigning MotoGP champion set a best time of 1m19.394s on the factory Ducati, beating the Trackhouse Aprilia of Raul Fernandez by 0.166s, as the two Italian manufacturers spent much of practice trading the top spot.
When the hour-long session began, Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi wasted little time in lighting up the timesheets, quickly usurping Fernandez’s benchmark from FP1 before lowering it further to a 1m20.646s.
That put him just over a tenth clear of the Ducatis of Marc Marquez and Alex Marquez, while Fernandez slotted into fourth for Trackhouse.
The order remained unchanged until the halfway point of the session, when Bezzecchi found almost another tenth to extend his advantage over the rest of the field. The Italian’s time stood until the final quarter of the session, when VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio raised the bar with a blistering 1m20.104s.
Alex Marquez managed to close within a second of Bezzecchi on the Gresini Ducati, before Marc Marquez stormed to the top with 14 minutes remaining, becoming the first rider to set a sub-1m20s lap.
Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
Di Giannantonio quickly snatched the top spot again with a 1m19.674s, with Alex Marquez also going quicker than the reigning Sachsenring winner to move up to second.
But it was Marc Marquez who had the last laugh, his final effort with three minutes left putting him on top by a tenth-and-a-half.
Fernandez ended up as Marquez’s closest rival in second with a late flying lap, leaving Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez in third and fourth respectively.
Jack Miller put together an impressive lap to end up fifth-fastest for Pramac Yamaha, finishing ahead of the remaining three Aprilias of Ai Ogura, Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin.
Pedro Acosta was consigned to a lowly ninth on the factory KTM, six tenths off top, while VR46’s Franco Morbidelli jumped to 10th at the death of the session, earning a direct slot into Q2.
The most high-profile rider to miss out on top 10 was Francesco Bagnaia, who ended up 13th behind the KTMs of Enea Bastianini and Brad Binder. A late yellow flag triggered by Bastianini crashing at Turn 9 may have affected Bagnaia’s momentum, but the track was cleared in time for riders to complete their final flying laps.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
Behind the two-time MotoGP champion, Luca Marini ended up 14th on the best of the Hondas, with Yamaha counterpart Fabio Quartararo finishing just 0.004s adrift in 15th.
Marini’s team-mate Joan Mir was classified 16th after a late off in the final three minutes.
MotoGP German GP – practice results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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