Marc Marquez wrote the history of MotoGP training at the Sachsenring almost single-handedly. After a wild crash in the Ralf Waldmann curve T11, also known as the waterfall, Marquez went back on the track for a short run and immediately set the fastest time. He then went to the medical center for an examination and was pushed down to 13th place on the time list. Marquez therefore has to go through Q1 in qualifying, but can be happy that the race doctors have given him the go-ahead to start.
The result: The fastest man in training was Maverick Vinales in 1:19.622 minutes. Jorge Martin was second, a whopping 0.340 seconds slower. Miguel Oliveira came third ahead of Alex Marquez, Francesco Bagnaia, Enea Bastianini and Franco Morbidelli. Pedro Acosta, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Brad Binder grabbed the last tickets for direct entry into Q2.
Marc Marquez, in 13th place, will face Jack Miller, Raul Fernandez, Fabio Quartararo and Marco Bezzecchi, among others, in Q1. Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl finished the training in P21.
Falls, defects & incidents: Marc Marquez had problems with one of his two motorcycles. He returned to the pits after just one lap. The same scenario had already played out in the morning training.
Marco Bezzecchi flew off the waterfall. However, the VR46 pilot seemed to have gotten off lightly.
Marc Marquez had an even more brutal fall in the same place. He initially lost control of the front wheel and tried to catch the slide, but this caused a violent highsider that caused him to hit the asphalt hard. A few minutes later, however, Marquez was back in the pits with a new leather suit and was back on the track. He only did a short run, however, and then went to the medical center for a check-up, where he was declared fit.
Fabio Di Giannantonio crashed in turn one and immediately held his right arm, but came back without any serious injuries. The session was then interrupted with a red flag for around 13 minutes because Di Giannantonio’s Ducati had hit the air fence and damaged it.
After the session restarted, Takaaki Nakagami, Joan Mir and Pedro Acosta also crashed in turn one within a few minutes. Augusto Fernandez was hit in turn 3. Enea Bastianini crashed in turn eleven and Yamaha substitute Remy Gardner and Johann Zarco in the final turn 13.
The weather: After a cool and cloudy start to the MotoGP training Friday, the Sachsenring did not look particularly summery for the afternoon training either. The session took place under heavily overcast skies, 19 degrees outside and 26 degrees on the asphalt.