KTM’s Remy Gardner maintained his dominant run of form at the Sachsenring by advancing the pace in FP3 with his 1’24.003 lap time.
Heading his teammate Raul Fernandez once again, the Ajo pair were joined by Fabio Di Giannantonio at the top of the standings, with a resurgent Jake Dixon securing his place in Q2 from ninth.
Xavi Vierge led the way as FP3 began for the intermediate class, Marcos Ramirez heading Fernandez, Di Giannantonio and Gardner in the initial top-five as the pace already nipped at the heels of the Australian’s Friday best after just five minutes on track.
Dixon returned to a more familiar rhythm as he advanced to sixth, Somkiat Chantra, Marcel Schrotter, Ai Ogura and Tony Arbolino completing the top-10 in the early stages.
Gardner improved the overall pace by bettering himself with a 1’24.003 on his fifth lap of Saturday as Augusto Fernandez moved up to fifth and Lorenzo Dalla Porta found the limit on his Italtrans machine moments later.
A mid-session calm saw the majority of riders working on longer runs as they prepared for Sunday’s 28-lap race, a somewhat subdued Sam Lowes circulating in 11th as the clock counted down.
The final 10-minute push saw his Marc VDS teammate Fernandez blink first as he headed out on track with new tyres, Di Giannantonio and Jorge Navarro the first to make an impact on the times as they advanced to second and 10th respectively.
Fernandez advanced to join his KTM teammate in the top-two on the next revolution as Joe Roberts made his case for Q2 contention from 13th.
There was little change to the standings as the clock counted down, Cameron Beaubier crashing out of the session at turn one with three minutes to go.
The Australian retained his control on the class from fellow KTM, Fernandez, with Di Giannantonio showing why he’ll be joining the GP class next year, in third. Vierge took fourth from Ramirez, and the second Fernandez with Schrotter, Ogura, Dixon and Navarro rounding out the top-10. Chantra, Lowes, Roberts and Nicolò Bulega secured the final promotion places with Arbolino and Bo Bendsneyder the first to miss out, in 15th and 16th respectively.
