Sachsenring MotoGP: Marquez leads crash-filled FP3

Marc Marquez set the pace in the Saturday morning MotoGP practice at Sachsenring, leading Maverick Vinales by nearly two tenths.

Marquez's 1m20.745s effort is the best time of the weekend so far, the Honda factory rider setting his benchmark late in the FP3 session.

He impressively lowered Aleix Espargaro's earlier top time by half a second at that point and, while Vinales closed the gap to 0.170s by the chequered flag, it was Marquez ending up ahead.

Jonas Folger took third, the Tech 3 Yamaha rider leading the majority of the session before being demoted by Vinales and then Espargaro during the final 10 minutes.

Aprilia's Espargaro was fourth, ahead of Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi.

After failing in FP1, Rossi's bike stopped again at the beginning of the third practice.

However, he managed to rejoin soon after his issue and, while he spent most of the running outside of the top 10, a late effort put him sixth.

Ducati factory duo Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso were seventh and eighth respectively, as the final two riders to make it to Q2 were Dani Pedrosa and Alvaro Bautista.

Pedrosa was one of several riders to fall, the Honda rider crashing at T1.

Karel Abraham and Johann Zarco were the fourth and fifth rider to go down at Turn 11 this weekend, the latter suffering his second excursion later on as he went through the gravel at Turn 8.

Along with Zarco, Vinales and Bradley Smith also ran wide at the eighth corner, but all of them rejoined without falling.

Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci and Sam Lowes both crashed at the final turn.

FP3 results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'20.745
2	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'20.915	0.170
3	94	Jonas Folger	Yamaha	1'21.198	0.453
4	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'21.209	0.464
5	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'21.275	0.530
6	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'21.311	0.566
7	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1'21.373	0.628
8	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'21.422	0.677
9	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'21.480	0.735
10	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'21.497	0.752
11	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	1'21.608	0.863
12	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'21.623	0.878
13	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'21.658	0.913
14	43	Jack Miller	Honda	1'21.835	1.090
15	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'21.897	1.152
16	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'21.925	1.180
17	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'21.934	1.189
18	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'21.945	1.200
19	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1'22.018	1.273
20	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	1'22.089	1.344
21	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	1'22.350	1.605
22	36	Mika Kallio	KTM	1'22.380	1.635
23	22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	1'22.569	1.824
24	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'22.724	1.979