German MotoGP, Sachsenring – Saturday Practice Results

* Rookie

Fastest Friday time:
Marco Bezzecchi ITA Ducati 1m 20.271s

Official Sachsenring MotoGP records:
Best lap:
Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati 1m 19.765s (2022)
Fastest race lap:
Marc Marquez SPA Honda 1m 21.228s (2019)

Marc Marquez puts Friday’s drama behind him to lead brother Alex at the end of a wet Free Practice 3 for the German MotoGP at Sachsenring.

Marquez – who gave his Honda the middle finger after multiple scares on Friday, then later fell and wiped out Johann Zarco as the Frenchman exited pit lane – moved to the top with a 1m 29.269s. The #93 had one Kalex chassis and one Honda chassis fitted to his bikes.

While slick tyres were used during Friday’s MotoGP sessions, when Marco Bezzecchi was quickest, the track was soaking wet for the start of FP3 – albeit with bright skies overhead and a dry line starting to develop. 

Marc Marquez suffered another scare early in the session when Bezzecchi suddenly slowed ahead of him as he prepared to pull into the pits. The Italian received a ‘conduct warning’ from the FIM Stewards.

Bezzecchi and Zarco also featured on top this morning, on their way to third and fourth, ahead of KTM’s Jack Miller, who was held up by Franco Morbidelli.

Qualifying 1 for those outside the top ten on Friday, including Miller’s team-mate Brad Binder and 11-time Sachsenring winner Marc Marquez, will now begin.

• Marc Marquez: Middle finger down to “adrenaline”| “Only Zarco could avoid clash”
• Johann Zarco on Marc Marquez : “I’m not stupid, he can’t put fault on me, ridiculous”
• Sachsenring: Latest Moto2 Results
• Sachsenring: Latest Moto3 Results

Germany was the nadir of Francesco Bagnaia’s 2022 world championship season, slipping 91 points from Fabio Quartararo after an early fall before fighting back to take the title in the second half of the year. Bagnaia returns with a 21-point lead over Marco Bezzecchi.

Sachsenring is Marc Marquez’s most successful circuit, with eleven wins at the German Grand Prix, including eight in the MotoGP class. Absent last season due to arm surgery, when Quartararo took victory, Marquez hasn’t been beaten at the tight and twisty anti-clockwise circuit since 2009 in 125cc.

Marquez is riding alone at Repsol Honda with team-mate Joan Mir sidelined by a hand injury at Mugello last weekend. LCR Honda’s Alex Rins is also absent after fracturing his right tibia and fibula in Italy. The COTA winner won’t be fit to return until after the summer break. Rins’ team-mate Takaaki Nakagami has been handed a Kalex chassis for the first time this weekend.

GASGAS Tech3’s Pol Espargaro has abandoned a planned return in Germany and is again replaced by KTM test rider Jonas Folger, meaning a home rider will be taking part in the premier class. Espargaro is also thought unlikely to be fit for next weekend’s Assen round.

Older brother Aleix, diagnosed with two broken bones in his right heel after struggling with bicycle injuries throughout the Mugello weekend, limped away from a at turn one after just ten minutes.