Sachsenring MotoGP: Marquez ends Friday practice on top

Second in the opening practice, championship leader Marquez very nearly crashed on his first push lap in FP2 after losing the front of his Honda at Turn 1 – but shrugged off this moment to post the new fastest lap of the weekend, a 1m21.113s, a few minutes later.

This left Marquez three tenths clear of Rins, before Petronas Yamaha's FP1 pace-setter Quartararo set the new benchmark just past the halfway point of the session, edging the reigning champion by just 0.013s as he overcame what had been a quarter-second deficit after two sectors.

With less than nine minutes left on the clock, Rins vaulted to the top spot courtesy of a 1m21.046s set using a new hard rear tyre.

But both Marquez and Quartararo emerged on fresh soft rear rubber right afterwards, and this allowed the former to reclaim the lead with ease through a 1m20.705s effort.

Quartararo's initial improvement was a lot more modest, as he came up just short of overhauling Rins and was then baulked by teammate Franco Morbidelli on the next lap, which left the French rookie enraged.

He couldn't improve after that, which meant Rins was secure in second place, despite himself failing to find more laptime on a soft rear tyre in the closing minutes.

Maverick Vinales was fourth, while KTM rider Pol Espargaro made it four Spaniards in the top five after following Vinales' works teammate Valentino Rossi on his fastest lap – with Rossi ending up 10th.

The injured Cal Crutchlow was sixth for LCR Honda, while Pramac's Jack Miller was the lead Ducati rider in seventh, just 0.042s and 0.047s ahead of Ducati works duo Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso respectively.

Aleix Espargaro was the top Aprilia in 11th, 0.005s behind Rossi, while Jorge Lorenzo's Repsol Honda stand-in Stefan Bradl was 0.988s off Marquez's pace in 14th.

Pramac Ducati rookie Francesco Bagnaia sat out FP2, having gone to the local hospital in Chemnitz for an MRI after complaining of a headache following his FP1 crash.

Session results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	26	1'20.705			163.751
2	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	26	1'21.046	0.341	0.341	163.062
3	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	23	1'21.065	0.360	0.019	163.024
4	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	23	1'21.193	0.488	0.128	162.767
5	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	21	1'21.265	0.560	0.072	162.623
6	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	23	1'21.392	0.687	0.127	162.369
7	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	23	1'21.442	0.737	0.050	162.270
8	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	20	1'21.484	0.779	0.042	162.186
9	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	24	1'21.489	0.784	0.005	162.176
10	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	24	1'21.538	0.833	0.049	162.079
11	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	19	1'21.543	0.838	0.005	162.069
12	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	23	1'21.641	0.936	0.098	161.874
13	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	24	1'21.678	0.973	0.037	161.801
14	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	23	1'21.693	0.988	0.015	161.771
15	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	21	1'21.729	1.024	0.036	161.700
16	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	21	1'21.758	1.053	0.029	161.642
17	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	23	1'21.897	1.192	0.139	161.368
18	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	23	1'21.899	1.194	0.002	161.364
19	5	Johann Zarco	KTM	20	1'22.001	1.296	0.102	161.163
20	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	20	1'22.208	1.503	0.207	160.758
21	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	24	1'22.462	1.757	0.254	160.262
	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati
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