Marc Márquez leads afternoon practice at the Sachsenring

The afternoon practice is special, as the fastest top 10 riders earn direct entry to Q2. Riders immediately took advantage of good track conditions, with lap times improving quickly during the first few minutes.

The riders were pushing hard from the start, as the times started in a range from 1:21 to 1:23s. As the riders completed more laps, the times got quicker. The tyre configuration was mostly the same, with riders choosing mostly hard in combination with medium, while some riders chose soft.

As the session progressed, the order was changing quickly. With 15 minutes into the session, the top 10 looked as follows: Bezzecchi, M. Márquez, A. Márquez, Fernandez, Acosta, Di Giannantonio, Bagnaia, Martin, Miller, Moreira.

As the session progressed, the riders made their way back into the pits, leaving only a few riders on the empty track. Those were Acosta, Di Giannantonio, Bagnaia and Martin.

Ai Ogura, who had won the last Grand Prix, was down in 16th place. There was a minor incident between Franco Morbidelli and Pedro Acosta, which the stewards decided to investigate.

But it didn’t take long, and Ogura managed to break into the top 10. Meanwhile, Jack Miller was surprising, as he was the best Yamaha rider in 10th place. Ai Ogura, using the empty track, did his best time so far and moved to 3rd place. With the session halfway done, the top 10 looked as follows: Bezzecchi, M. Márquez, Ogura, A. Márquez, Fernandez, Acosta, Di Giannantonio, Bagnaia, Martin, Miller.

Another rider who managed to improve was Fabio Quartararo, who even broke into the top 10. Also, Bagnaia managed to move to 7th place.

But as the riders started their next attempts, Bagnaia had a really good first sector, but then he was much slower in both the second and third sectors. He went into the pits in the end.

Fabio Di Giannantonio managed to put in an incredible lap as he moved to the lead of the session. Both Bastianini and Mir, who were outside the top 10, put in great attempts as they moved to 3rd and 4th.

With 20 minutes left, the top 10 looked as follows: Di Giannantonio, Bezzecchi, Bastianini, Mir, Marini, M. Márquez, Moreira, Ogura, A. Márquez, Vinales.

As the riders entered the last 15 minutes, they were starting to push even harder. A great example was Marc Márquez, who was the first to break into the 1:19s and took the lead of the session. Joining Márquez was Jack Miller, who had done the exact same time as Márquez, going into 2nd.

However, shortly after, Fabio Di Giannantonio surprised everyone as he took the lead from Marc Márquez.

After a short stop in the pits, the riders returned to the track with 5 minutes left. The first yellow flag of the day was caused by Enea Bastianini, who had crashed at Turn 8.

Meanwhile, Marc Márquez retook the lead, with Fernandez behind him. Marc Márquez was officially the fastest with a time of 1:19.394.

The riders going straight into Q2 are: M. Márquez, Fernandez, Di Giannantonio, A. Márquez, Miller, Ogura, Bezzecchi, Martin, Acosta, Morbidelli.