Rain peeped over the Sachsenring for a couple of minutes in the central part of the first free practice session of the German Grand Prix, complicating the MotoGP riders’ plans.
With the forecasts threatening heavier rain for the afternoon session, it was in fact essential to try to obtain a position among the top ten with a view to moving directly to Q2, so almost everyone was forced to brave the treacherous conditions and get back on track with slick tires in search of an improvement that actually happened.
The fastest in the end was Johann Zarco, who stopped the clock on the Prima Pramac Racing Ducati with a time of 1’20″702, thanks to which he was able to outdistance Marc Marquez by 152 thousandths who once again proved to have a special feeling with the German ups and downs, on which he won 11 times in all classes.
The Honda rider also had to deal with a couple of pretty frightening slams, proving how “nervous” his RC213V is at the moment, and he probably also made a small mistake in T3 on his best lap, without the which perhaps might as well have been fastest this morning.
In third position is a stoic Aleix Espargaro, back on track despite having been diagnosed with two fractures in his foot after a bike crash last Thursday at Mugello. The Aprilia rider didn’t even let himself be stopped by a crash at turn 1 and finished 195 thousandths off the lead. Among other things, his is the only RS-GP in the top positions, with team mate Maverick Vinales who instead finds himself only 13th, albeit just 667 thousandths behind.
Completing the top 5 is the all-Ducati and all-Spanish tandem made up of Alex Marquez and Jorge Martin, who are respectively two and three tenths behind them. On a track where the engine has a relative value, Fabio Quartararo was finally back in the top positions, sixth at 0.0002s despite the fact that he too ended up in the air at turn 1 right in the closing stages of the session.
Seventh position for the best of the KTMs, that of the South African Brad Binder, who accuses a gap of just under four tenths. His teammate Jack Miller, as often happens in these conditions, was the one who reopened the dance after the rain, but perhaps he accelerated the times, arriving at the end with the tires already a little more at the limit than the competition and therefore he finds himself only 14th at 696 thousandths.
It hasn’t been an easy shift for Pecco Bagnaia. The World Championship leader was even 19th when it started to rain, having shown some difficulty in stopping his Ducati. In the end, however, he was good at limiting the damage, moving up the standings to eighth place, ahead of the other two Desmosedici GPs ridden by an excellent Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi, who at the moment complete the picture of those who would have access to Q2 .
Takaaki Nakagami would be out by just 68 thousandths who, thanks to Joan Mir’s absence due to injury, has the Kalex chassis available on his Team LCR RC213V. Luca Marini also out for a while, 12th at 633 thousandths. Instead, it was a more complicated round for Enea Bastianini, 17th and not yet 100% fit after the shoulder blade injury in Portimao, and for Franco Morbidelli, who ruined his chances of slipping into the top 10 with a crash at the infamous Waterfall, the downhill Turn 11.
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