Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (KTM RC 16) took the lead at the end of the first day of free practice of the MotoGP German Grand Prix, at the Sachsenring circuit, in which the Spanish Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) did not he was able to enter the second direct classification by being twelfth.
Oliveira, winner of Catalan Grand Prix, set a best time of 1: 20.690 that earned him the first place, although he was almost half a second from the fastest lap in the category that Marc Márquez himself has had since 2019 in 1: 20.195.
It did not take too long for Marc Márquez -which opens in Germany a “retro” design in all its equipment, from the helmet to the boots to the gloves – to establish itself as a reference in the category, since in its fourth lap it already rolled in 1: 21.687, just 27 thousandths of a second slower than its morning time.
And he even improved on the next lap to star in the fastest record of the weekend, up to that moment, 1: 21.656, although pursued by the Portuguese Oliveira, who ended up beating him by just over a tenth of a second, 1: 21.496 in his fifth lap, while at turn three he was on the ground, without consequences, the Spanish Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), who was fourth in the morning session but in the end was able to be fifth in the overall tally of the two sessions, just behind Maverick Viñales and Alex Rins (Suzuki GSX RR).
The Italian Luca Marini (Ducati Desmosedici GP20), who crashed at the beginning of the session on the uphill turn into the finish line, was able to return to his workshop to take the second bike, with which he managed to climb up to second position after Oliveira, while the rest of the rivals continued their fine-tuning work and there were no major changes in the order of the time table.
There was still a lot of training time ahead, but the work done by the pilot of Repsol Honda It seemed that it was paying off, and that was how he recovered the first place and the best absolute time in the category by shooting in 1: 21.291.
For this Marc Márquez, with the same configuration that he used in the last race he won in this scenario, the hard compound in front and the intermediate one on the rear axle, but on his last outing on the track he came out with the intermediate compounds on both wheels and already could not improve his personal time, which relegated him to twelfth place, just ahead of his brother Alex Marquez (Honda RC 213 V).
The Italian Valentino Rossi (Yamaha YZR M 1) was once again in the news after suffering a crash at turn one of the German track, in which there was no considerable damage, when he was in the eighteenth position, which forced him to walk back to his workshop in search of the second motorcycle, with which he jumped back onto the track but to finish twenty-first.
The final minutes gave the “starting gun” to the changes in the table as a result of the different strategies of the pilots and there it was another Honda rider, the Japanese Takaaki Nakagami, who took the initiative, although it did not last long as the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1), the last to improve his morning record, his partner Maverick Viñales and Miguel Oliveira, they were gradually reducing the best times of the category until reaching 1: 20.690 of the Lusitanian.
That record earned Oliveira the first place, ahead of Quartararo and Viñales, with Rins, Pol Espargaró and Nakagami, behind them, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP) was seventh, with Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), Australian Jack Miller (Ducati Desmosedici GP21) and Italian Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha YZR M 1), behind him.
Neither the Márquez brothers, nor Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), the world champion in title Joan Mir (Suzuki GSX RR) or Iker Lecuona (KTM RC16), achieved the pass to the second classification.
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