Márquez leads the way in FP1

125cc World Championship leader Marc Márquez’s dominance of late continued without respite as the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland got underway at Sachsenring on Friday, as the 17 year-old set the fastest lap of the session by some distance with a 1’27.435. That made Márquez the only rider under 1’28” in the session, and placed him a substantial 0.833s clear at the top of the timesheet.

Next up was Tuenti Racing’s Pol Espargaró, who is just a single point behind Márquez in the standings, and the young Catalan rider had a few moments during the session. After 18 minutes he controlled his Derbi machine well in a run-off at turn eight, and towards the end of the session avoided a collision with wildcard rider Marvin Fritz (LHF Project Racing). Nevertheless his intentions of challenging Márquez this weekend were made clear with a time of 1’28.268.

Completing an all-Derbi top three was Espargaró’s team-mate Efrén Vázquez (+1.190s on Márquez), with German duo Jonas Folger (Team Ongetta) and Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo) clearly well motivated for their home event as they both timed within a tenth of the second of Vázquez.

Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany), Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX) and Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) completed the top eight in the hour-long session.

A notable absence from the practice was Bancaja Aspar rider Nico Terol, who is currently third in the Championship. The Spaniard, who suffered a bruised lung and two fractured vertebra in a last-lap crash at Catalunya almost two weeks ago, was given the medical all-clear to ride this weekend but after an uncomfortable Thursday night decided to leave a final decision on whether he will ride until tomorrow (Saturday) morning.