Forward NGM Yamaha’s Aleix Espargaro snatched top spot with his last lap in today’s opening Sachsenring MotoGP free practice session while reigning champion Marc Marquez had to pick himself up from an early highside at turn two (click here for pictures)
Espargaro put his soft-option rear tyre to good use on his last run to lap at 1’22.170 and demote the works Movistar Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo to second place by a quarter of a second while Valentino Rossi was less than a tenth behind putting in a 1’22.466 with his last.
Monster Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro ended in fourth place and another tenth slower than Rossi but his British team-mate Bradley Smith had a nightmare with two crashes. The first happened was a cold-tyre highside at turn ten after only a few minutes and the second at session end when the YZR-M1 tried to spit him off but he kept hold of it until the bike went into the gravel. He appears to have escaped injury.
Marquez’s crash was at turn two and looked like another cold-tyre highside as he was spat off the RC213V with no warning and spent time catching his breath in the gravel before returning to his garage and going back out to eventually set the sixth fastest time of 1’22.767 behind Alvaro Bautista.
Early leader Stefan Bradl slipped back to seventh on the LCR Honda but was still a fraction quicker than Dani Pedrosa on the second Repsol Honda, who was seven-tenths slower than Espargaro in top spot.
Andrea Iannone was the quickest Ducati in ninth place with Yonny Hernandez getting a tow from Rossi for tenth spot and Andrea Dovizioso in 11th. Smith’s best time in between crashes was enough for 12th place and one in front of Cal Crutchlow on the other factory Desmosedici. The Briton is just over a second off the pace.
Nicky Hayden took control of the Production Honda battle late on, demoting Scott Redding to 15th place with his 20th lap of the German track whole Michael Laverty ended in 20th place and only 1.755s off the place.
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