Marc Marquez has carried the momentum gained at Assen over to the Sachsenring, topping the timesheets in the first session of free practice for the MotoGP class, and getting under the race lap record already. Marquez took top spot with the soft front tire, then took the asymmetric out at the end of the session and improved his time even further.
Valentino Rossi took second spot in FP2. The Movistar Yamaha rider had kept Marquez honest in the first part of the session, only losing ground as Marquez upped the pace at the end of practice. Scott Redding put in a strong performance on Friday morning, shooting up to 3rd in the session towards the end, as he followed Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa round. Redding has struggled early in practice so far this year, and putting in a fast time early on will take some of the pressure off him, and boost his confidence.
Dani Pedrosa grabbed 4th spot, the Repsol Honda rider doing strongly at a track where he has always gone well. Yonny Hernandez took the Pramac Ducati to 5th, putting the bike ahead of the factory Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso. Jorge Lorenzo took 7th spot, the Movistar Yamaha rider over two thirds of a second behind Marquez and a third of a second behind his teammate Valentino Rossi, but finishing ahead of the Suzuki of Aleix Espargaro. Cal Crutchlow ended the session as 9th fastest, putting the CWM LCR Honda ahead of Andrea Iannone, who was the last of the riders in the top 10.
The fast corner of Turn 11 caught its usual few victims. Pol Espargaro destroyed his Monster Tech 3 Yamaha there halfway through the session, while Alvaro Bautista crashed there later on as well.
Results:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Diff Previous |
1 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 1'21.766 | ||
2 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 1'22.102 | 0.336 | 0.336 |
3 | 45 | Scott Redding | Honda | 1'22.167 | 0.401 | 0.065 |
4 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | 1'22.243 | 0.477 | 0.076 |
5 | 68 | Yonny Hernandez | Ducati | 1'22.396 | 0.630 | 0.153 |
6 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'22.428 | 0.662 | 0.032 |
7 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 1'22.445 | 0.679 | 0.017 |
8 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki | 1'22.462 | 0.696 | 0.017 |
9 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'22.567 | 0.801 | 0.105 |
10 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati | 1'22.670 | 0.904 | 0.103 |
11 | 25 | Maverick Viñales | Suzuki | 1'22.674 | 0.908 | 0.004 |
12 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | Yamaha | 1'22.696 | 0.930 | 0.022 |
13 | 38 | Bradley Smith | Yamaha | 1'22.698 | 0.932 | 0.002 |
14 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 1'22.792 | 1.026 | 0.094 |
15 | 69 | Nicky Hayden | Honda | 1'22.935 | 1.169 | 0.143 |
16 | 8 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | 1'23.163 | 1.397 | 0.228 |
17 | 63 | Mike Di Meglio | Ducati | 1'23.299 | 1.533 | 0.136 |
18 | 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia | 1'23.878 | 2.112 | 0.579 |
19 | 50 | Eugene Laverty | Honda | 1'24.007 | 2.241 | 0.129 |
20 | 7 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Honda | 1'24.063 | 2.297 | 0.056 |
21 | 15 | Alex De Angelis | ART | 1'24.063 | 2.297 | |
22 | 43 | Jack Miller | Honda | 1'24.096 | 2.330 | 0.033 |
23 | 70 | Michael Laverty | Aprilia | 1'24.446 | 2.680 | 0.350 |
24 | 76 | Loris Baz | Yamaha Forward | 1'25.462 | 3.696 | 1.016 |
25 | 71 | Claudio Corti | Yamaha Forward | 1'26.771 | 5.005 | 1.309 |
Comments
Melandri
Where is Marco David? Why is Michael Laverty standing in?
In reply to Melandri by swiftnick
ehm...
https://motomatters.com/news/2015/07/08/free_at_last_melandri_released_…
In reply to ehm... by Dawg
Thanks
It's a real nuisance that I can't log in every day to keep up.
Most remiss...
In reply to Melandri by swiftnick
News link
http://superbikeplanet.com/2015/Jul/150708a.htm
M Laverty...
... is faster than Melandri straight away. How painful was this come back for Marco & Aprilia....
In reply to M Laverty... by Coll Raceovski
Yep
Only 0.6 behind Bautista on his first outing. Was Melandri ever that close all year? It's hard to escape the feeling that Melandri was just rolling around making a point to Aprilia.