Petronas Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo grabbed top spot in the opening MotoGP free practice at the Sachsenring, deposing reigning champion Marc Marquez with a minute to run with Valentino Rossi in third place.
Marquez had dominated the session with medium Michelins all round on his Repsol Honda, putting in a 1’21.464 on his seventh lap to lead by half a second.
Quartararo came out for his final run with a soft front on his satellite M1 and bagged top spot with a 1’21.390 while Marquez switched to a hard front, clearly content with the pace he had shown earlier.
Rossi bounced back from his Assen disappointment, putting a soft/medium combination to good use for third spot with a 1'21.964 on his 21st lap.
Alex Rins, also a crasher at Assen, set his best time early in the session - a 1'21.967 - and then switched to a hard front on the older-spec chassis he used before the Dutch round.
Andrea Dovizioso was sixth and nine-tenths off the pace with Jack Miller in seventh and Andrea Iannone in eighth, a second off the pace on the Aprilia.
Taka Nakagami put his LCR Honda in ninth, one ahead of team-mate Cal Crutchlow who is riding with a cracked right tibia and a snapped ACL.
Pol Espargaro, Karel Abraham - caravanning Marquez for his time - and Franco Morbidelli were next along with Aleix Espargaro and Danilo Petrucci, who has signed a new works Ducati deal, completing the top 15.
