Fabio Quartararo was the only Yamaha to secure Q2 promotion in Saturday’s MotoGP FP3, setting the fastest time of the German GP weekend so far with a 1’20.348.
Maverick Viñales completed the morning’s 45-minute session half-a-second behind his teammate in 13th, with Ducati’s Jack Miller and Johann Zarco claiming the top-three.
Marc Marquez was back on form as FP3 got up to speed on Saturday morning. The Repsol Honda taking charge of the session and sitting fifth overall as he improved his times from Friday as Miguel Oliveira and Takaaki Nakagami maintained their prominence in second and third. The Espargaro brothers sat, in age order, in fourth and fifth with Pecco Bagnaia finding his rhythm on the Ducati after a subdued Friday, in sixth.
A turn one crash for Enea Bastianini saw the Avintia retiring to the pits after less than 10-minutes on track, Marquez having a moment at turn 10 shortly after as he ran wide and dirt tracked through the gravel.
Quartararo and Miller were the next to improve as the pair claimed fifth and seventh respectively, the KTM’s of Brad Binder and Danilo Petrucci taking the final top-10 positions in the session so far with Marquez the only rider to have improved in the overall times.
Bagnaia continued to boost his pace as the session unfolded, taking fifth on his eighth lap, before Zarco stole the position two laps later. The Ducati man’s time - a 1’21.5 - however, still only good enough for 19th in the combined standings.
Alex Rins promoted his Suzuki into third with his 10th lap of the morning before the GSX-RR suffered a technical issue and the Spaniard was forced to push his beleaguered machine back to the pits.
The halfway stage saw the majority pit for fresh rubber with Joan Mir the first to attack as he advanced to third in FP3, ninth overall, thanks to a 1’21.164. A second attempt looking impressive as he set two red and one orange sectors before losing out in the final stages.
The last 15-minutes saw the Aprilias tag team their way to fifth and 10th as Lorenzo Savadori trailed his captain around the 3.7km layout, Espargaro advancing again next time around as he moved to third but it was Miller who stormed to the lead with a 1’20.526. Nakagami sat second, just 0.034s shy of the Ducati before Quartararo arrived in his usual style, shaving a further 0.17s off the fastest time overall to head the standings with 10-minutes left to run.
Marquez was up to fourth as Binder claimed sixth with Alex Marquez joining the party in seventh before Franky Morbidelli demoted the latter two and Zarco took his shot at second. Jorge Martin and Bagnaia continued the Ducati run of form by entering the top-10 as Oliveira returned another powerful lap, improving on his Friday best and finding third in the process.
Valentino Rossi’s confidence was buoyed as he pushed his Petronas to 12th, Viñales doing likewise with the factory M1 in 10th before tumbling out of his next attempt at the opening corner.
The final five minutes found Bagnaia continuing to rise, taking sixth on his 19th lap as teammate Miller missed out on the lead by a mere 0.056s. Pol Espargaro crashing out of a personal best lap at turn eighth with three minutes left on the clock, Binder forced to roll out of his next attempt due to the yellow flags.
A penultimate effort gifted Marquez fourth before the lap was deleted due to track limits, Martin making his mark in sixth as Mir, Morbidelli and Viñales sat outside of the top-10.
With the chequered flag out, there was little improvement left on the board. Quartararo took the session from Miller, Zarco and Oliveira with Aleix Espargaro heading Martin, Nakagami, Bagnaia, and both Marquez brothers in the final promotion places. Rins trailed his teammate and the disappointed Yamaha pair, in 14th with Petrucci, Rossi, Luca Marini, Binder, Savadori, Bastianini and Iker Lecuona completing the morning landings.
