Nakagami sets the pace after a slow start

Dark clouds continued to play a roll in practice, Moto2™ riders only able to use the last 20 minutes of FP1.

Despite rain in the session before, Dominique Aegerter (CarXpert Interwetten) went out for Free Practice 1 on slick tyres. His run would be less than a lap, returning to the pits almost immediately. The Swiss rider arrives in Germany carrying some minor injuries from a crash while testing for the Suzuka 8-Hour in Japan.

Riders were in no rush to head out, Jeskon Raffin (Sports-Millions-EMWE-SAG) the next rider out on track, leaving pit lane on wets with 35 minutes remaining. With 20 minutes left in the session, most riders were out and lapping on slick tyres again.

After the poor conditions at the start of the session Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) set the pace and topped the first session of the weekend with a 1’25.377. The Japanese rider comes to the German GP as the man of the moment after taking his first ever win in Assen.

0.386s back on the Japanese star was Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) with a 1’25.763. The French rider’s future was set in stone this weekend as it was announced he will be moving to the MotoGP™ World Championship with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team in 2017. Zarco is also testing a new exhaust this weekend.

Completing the top three was joint championship leader Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40), 0.408s off Nakagami’s time but within 0.022s of Zarco. All of the championship leaders were within a tenth of each other, Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) fourth and 0.049s slower than Zarco.

Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Racing Team) completed the top five, the Italian again showing well and will be one to watch on Sunday. He was closely followed by Franco Morbidelli (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS), Simone Corsi (Speed Up Racing), Marcel Schrotter (AGR Team), Jonas Folger (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) who were all in the top ten. One second split the top 14, the Moto2™ World Championship continuing to be the closest of all three classes in almost every regard.

Complete times and results from the session can be viewed here.

The intermediate class will be back out for Free Practice 2 at 15:05 Local Time.