Marc Marquez edged Maverick Vinales to top spot in the third free practice sessions ahead of the German Grand Prix, while Valentino Rossi suffered yet another technical issue.
After Friday’s running was hampered by rain in the afternoon, 10 minutes were added on to the third session to give the riders another opportunity to test the new Sachsenring tarmac in dry conditions.
Despite the dry conditions, improvements were few and far between in the opening 15 minutes, with 10 riders completing their mandatory five laps on the hard option rear for Michelin.
Rossi’s session started the same as it did on Friday morning, the Italian’s YZR-M1 shutting down as he headed round to begin his first flying lap.
The Italian was quickly back to his garage and out again on his second bike, and was eventually able to use the number one machine with his preferred chassis for his time attack later in the session.
Tech3’s Jonas Folger was the first major improver on his Friday best, the German shooting to the top of the timesheets with a 1m21.502s 20 minutes in, lowering that to a 1m21.403s on his next lap.
The rookie held onto top spot for the next 20 minutes, before the hard rear-shod Maverick Vinales edged ahead with a 1m21.376s. The Yamaha rider was then deposed by Aleix Espargaro, who guided his Aprilia RS-GP to a 1m21.209s.
The final few minutes proved frantic as everyone vied for a place inside the top 10 to gain direct entry to Q2, and it was Marquez who twisted the screw on his first lap on soft tyres.
The Honda rider popped in a 1m20.745s to go just over half a second shy of his outright lap record from 2015. Marquez came under threat from Vinales on his final flying lap, but the Yamah rider missed out by just 0.170 seconds.
Folger improved to a 1m21.198s to complete the top three ahead of Espargaro, with LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow lifting himself from outside of the top 10 to fifth in the closing stages ahead of Rossi.
Jorge Lorenzo edged Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso by 0.049s to seventh, while Dani Pedrosa recovered from a slow tumble at Turn 1 halfway through the session to finish ninth ahead of Alvaro Bautista.
Marc VDS’ Tito Rabat came close to a place in Q2, but was shy by a tenth in 11th. Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci will be ruing a late fall at the final corner as he slipped to 12th ahead of second practice fastest man Hector Barbera, Jakc Miller and Scott Redding.
A crash at the fast Turn 11 for Johann Zarco left him down in 17th and facing Q1, Aprilia’s Sam Lowes also visiting Sachsenring’s gravel trap at Turn 13 in the early stages in 23rd.
Comments.
Loading comments…