Johann Zarco finished this first day of the German Grand Prix on the Sachsenring circuit in an apparently very modest 18th position.
Technical problem or bad feeling in the Tech3 team? Nay! Simply an offbeat strategy consisting above all of aligning the laps without using the trick of the soft and new rear tire at the end of the session to accelerate the pace and improve the time.
A always risky bet which leaves the French driver this evening with more new tires than his opponents, but forces him to improve his time tomorrow morning to go directly to Q2, while this afternoon's session proved to be significantly more faster than that of the morning…
Johann zarco : “The first day at the Sachsenring started well and ended rather well. We are working hard, because we will be doing a lot of laps during the race and, therefore, it is really important to feel comfortable. It's a complicated track and I want to feel good on it. This morning the clock came while I was riding on my hand, which made me happy. This afternoon we were able to improve and we didn't put the new tire on at the end, because we wanted to continue working for the race. It is therefore necessary to attack hard tomorrow in FP3 to move directly into Q2. What we did today, I think, put us in the right direction to have a successful race.”
FP2 MotoGP standings German Grand Prix at Sachsenring:
| Pos | number | Pile | Motorcycle | Chrono | difference | |
| 1 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 1'20.885 | ||
| 2 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | 1'21.142 | 0.257 | |
| 3 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 1'21.204 | 0.319 | |
| 4 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'21.309 | 0.424 | |
| 5 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 1'21.349 | 0.464 | |
| 6 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | 1'21.384 | 0.499 | |
| 7 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | 1'21.447 | 0.562 | |
| 8 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | 1'21.497 | 0.612 | |
| 9 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'21.540 | 0.655 | |
| 10 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | 1'21.568 | 0.683 | |
| 11 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 1'21.616 | 0.731 | |
| 12 | 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 1'21.680 | 0.795 | |
| 13 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 1'21.718 | 0.833 | |
| 14 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | 1'21.743 | 0.858 | |
| 15 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Ducati | 1'21.777 | 0.892 | |
| 16 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | Yamaha | 1'21.777 | 0.892 | |
| 17 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 1'21.784 | 0.899 | |
| 18 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | 1'21.787 | 0.902 | |
| 19 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Aprilia | 1'22.003 | 1.118 | |
| 20 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 1'22.305 | 1.420 | |
| 21 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | Honda | 1'22.457 | 1.572 | |
| 22 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | 1'22.555 | 1.670 | |
| 23 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Honda | 1'22.767 | 1.882 | |
| 24 | 36 | Mika Kallio | KTM | 1'23.194 | 2.309 | |
| 25 | 10 | Xavier SIMEON | Ducati | 1'23.437 | 2.552 |
