German Grand Prix Sachsenring MotoGP FP2: Unexpected offensive from the Ducati!

The Sachsenring circuit has this in common with that of Austin in that Marc Márquez has won all the last Grands Prix there in which he has participated in MotoGP, plus, as far as Germany is concerned, 3 victories in 125 and Moto2.

Enough, on paper and on a regular basis, to discourage adversity which should only aim for second place on the very specific German slide with its succession of left turns, the favorite side of Marc Márquez.

But this morning, if the Honda driver led a good part of the session, FP1 showed Hondas not in such good shape, with Dani Pedrosa 14th and Cal Crutchlow 19e.

More lively were the Official Yamaha of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinale, 3rd and 4th, and even the Ducati which was hardly expected so high in the ranking, with the Borgo Panigale drivers occupying 5, 6, 7 and 8th positions.

But the surprise came fromAndrea Iannone who was able to place his Suzuki at the top of the provisional ranking, with a faster time than last year in the same session.

The 10 pre-qualified for Q2 are: Andrea Iannone, Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Maverick Vinales, Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci, Jack Miller, Jorge Lorenzo, Scott Redding and Johann Zarco.

In terms of miscellaneous information, Mika Kallio is a wild card for KTM while Franco Morbidelli was declared fit by doctors but declared package for the benefit of Stefan Bradl.

 

Note that the famous turn #11, nicknamed until now Waterfall, is now called Ralf Waldmann Corner in honor of the fallen German pilot.

Weather-wise, although there was rain yesterday, the sun shone this morning and should do so throughout the rest of the weekend despite a few small drops falling early in the afternoon (See weather radar here).
It is currently 23° and the track is at 36° at the start of this second 45-minute MotoGP session of the German weekend:

Sachsenring MotoGP™	2017	2018
FP1	1'21.599 Andrea Dovizioso	1'21.442 Andrea Iannone (See here)
FP2	1'28.115 Hector Barbera	1'20.885 Jorge Lorenzo
FP3	1'20.745 Marc Marquez
FP4	1'21.822 Marc Marquez
Qualification 1	1'27.688 Danilo Petrucci
Qualification 2	1'27.302 Marc Marquez
Warm Up	1'21.635 Jonas Folger
Course	Marquez, Folger, Pedrosa
All time lap record	1'20.336 Marc Marquez 2015

When the red lights go out, it's all over again Jorge Lorenzo who rushes first.

The majority of drivers this time chose a medium front tire while we find all the hardness at the rear, Cal Crutchlow however being the only one to use a hard/hard combination.

The first flying round of Marc Márquez is already done in 1'22.236, less than a second from the best lap of the morning...

On the next pass, the Honda driver recorded 1'21.349, the best time of the day.

The 2 official Ducatis also improved their morning times, as did Hafiz Syahrin which enters the top 10 combined.

Mika Kallio falls quite violently at the fast turn #8. The Finnish pilot is arrested by Airfences and evacuated to the medical center.

After a visit to the box, Dani Pedrosa fitted two hard tires but this did not seem to improve his situation and the future retiree had to be content with provisional 17th position.

In contrast to Takaaki Nakagami, 5rd, Cal Crutchlow also seems to be struggling, in 14th place, while Xavier Simeon minor fall at turn 3, losing the front of his Ducati.

At mid-session, the hierarchy is made up of Marc Márquez, Maverick Vinales, Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso, Johann Zarco, Tito Rabat, Takaaki Nakagami, Danilo Petrucci, Álvaro Bautista and Hafizh Syahrin.

At this moment, Andrea Iannone only appears in 14th position, Valentino Rossi in 16st.

We then witness a small disagreement between John Zarco et Marc Marquez...

Alvaro Bautista, undoubtedly very motivated by his possible arrival in the Yamaha satellite team, then achieved the 3rd time of the session (4th overall) while Cal Crutchlow raises the bar by positioning itself 4th in front Alex Espargaro: the outsiders show their teeth…

The final package sees all drivers switch to a rear soft tire, except Marc Marquez in Medium.

Jack Miller jumps to 6th position and ejects Johann zarco from the top 10 combined.

Alvaro Bautista then took second place when, 2 minutes from the checkered flag, Jorge Lorenzo takes pole position in 1'20.885, ahead of Danilo Petrucci.

We therefore find 5 Ducatis in the Top 10, while John Zarco chose not to use a new rear tire at the end of the session, which explains his very modest 18th position.

Ranking German Grand Prix MotoGP FP2 at Sachsenring:

Credit rankings and tires: MotoGP.com