Repsol’s Marc Marquez dominated the opening practice of the German GP from only his fourth lap, as he confidently navigated his return to the left-hand Sachsenring layout for FP1.
Honda was in commanding form as Takaaki Nakagami and Pol Espargaro joined their maestro in the top-four from the half-way stage of the morning session, with only Fabio Quartararo managing to match the HRC trio, taking second, less than two-tenths shy of the eight-time world champion.
The MotoGP action got underway with both Tech3 machines fielding the new KTM chassis - proved successful by Miguel Oliveira’s double podium in recent races - and Marquez running new aero on his Repsol Honda RC213V. The upgrades looked to be hitting the spot as the strongly recovering Spaniard led the session with a 1’21.660 - the ‘King of the Ring’ returning to the track he has dominated at for the past 10 years.
Jorge Martin became the first casualty of the German weekend after a crash at turn 12, with Espargaro following suit at turn three moments later.
An all-french battle began as Johann Zarco displaced Quartararo for second before the Yamaha rider hit back next time around, Nakagami and Jack Miller holding the remaining top-five positions ahead of Oliveira, Aleix Espargaro, Iker Lecuona and the Suzuki duo of Alex Rins and Joan Mir.
Nakagami improved to join his HRC captain at the top of the times, in second, after 10-minutes of action before Quartararo took a dramatic tumble at turn 12 - the Monster Energy man initially holding his right shoulder in the aftermath before looking to be okay.
The Aprilia rider rose to fourth at the halfway stage before Miller joined the top-three fight moments later, the previously fallen Espargaro demoting the Ducati on his return to action as Honda now fully dominated the standings.
The Yamaha’s circulated in fifth and sixth as Quartararo rejoined the session, the elder Espargaro, Pecco Bagnaia, Zarco and Oliveira completing the top-10 as the final 20-minutes unfolded with Franky Morbidelli, a somewhat-cautious Rins - thanks to his recovering right wrist - and Alex Marquez navigating on the fringes.
Seemingly untroubled by his earlier off, Quartararo pushed his M1 to fourth before advancing to claim second with his 11th lap of the morning’s 45-minutes. His teammate entering the pits, from seventh, as the final Yamaha of Valentino Rossi sat 16th and so far, one-second off the pace.
The final five minutes saw Miller running impressive consistent 1’22.0 pace as the top-five were split by a mere four-tenths. A further 0.2s covered back to Bagnaia in 10th with the final rider, Brad Binder, 1.3 seconds adrift.
Marquez maintained his command, from Quartararo and the remaining HRC riders, as the session concluded. Espargaro pushing his Aprilia to fifth in the closing stages with late efforts from Rins, Zarco and Mir trailing sixth-place Miller. Maverick Viñales completed the top-10 from Bagnaia and Oliveira, with Luca Marini, Morbidelli and Enea Bastianini rounding out the top-15.
