Moto GP | German GP | Friday Round Up | Oliveira pips Quartararo to top FP2 as Marquez kicked off Friday on top
MotoGP returns to the Sachsenring in Germany for the Liqui Moly Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland this weekend. Oliveira topped the FP2 session by 0.220 as Marquez the king of the ring topped the opening Friday session but struggled to get into top ten during FP2
Winner at Barcelona Oliveira set the early benchmark, as Portuguese rider clocked 1:28.823
Marquez who led the FP1 soon beat the time set by Oliveira by almost two tenths as lap was clocked under yellow flags due crash of Luca Marini at last corner.
Lucky escape for @Luca_Marini_97! 😲
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 18, 2021
An impressive session for the rookie ends as it began, with a crash 💢#GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/OrEGNWXnS5
Moments later Marc Marquez went on to beat his own time by some hundredths of seconds to set a new benchmark time of 1:21.656 which stood ground until 20 minutes were left in the session and Oliveira went fastest with 1:21.496 going two tenths fastest than Marquez’s time.
Though Marquez again topped the timesheets with 1:21.291 but opted not to defend his fastest lap in the time attack mode of the ending stages of FP2.
In time attack stages of the FP2 it was two Yamahas of Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartarao and KTM of Oliveira who traded time for the top spot of the timesheets.
Fabio Quartararo on Yamaha M1 beat the time of Takaaki Nakagami on to be beaten by his team-mate on the second Yamaha who went quickest with the time of 1:20.997.
In last moments of the session Oliveria charged in with the unbeatable time of 1:20.690 as Fabio Quartararo could only reach with in 0.220 and 0.113 ahead of his team-mate Maverick Vinales who settled for third.
Spaniard Alex Rins slotted at fourth a half tenth behind Maverick Vinales, behind him was Pol Espargaro who had a crash earlier but charged back in to complete the top five and ahead of Takaaki Nakagami.
Aleix Espargaro on his Aprilia Racing Gresini was seventh after a strong day in the office ahead of Ducatis of Johann Zarco and Jack Miller. Miller showed pace on certain parts of the tracks but was not fast enough to challenge the top grid.
Franco Morbidelli completed the top ten ahead of Danilo Petrucci who was one a new chassis as Marquez rumored to be suffering from pain didn’t go out in the last minutes ended being twelve fastest.
Earlier in FP1 Marc Marquez drew the first blood as he will be fighting to maintain his streak, topped the FP1 ahead of Fabio Quartararo and Takaaki Nakagami.
Its first time Marc Marquez has topped any session after his returns he clocked 1:21.660, 0.168 faster than Fabio Quartararo.
Pol Espargaro and Aleix Espargaro completed the top five as Aprilia looked strong for the weekend.
No stopping @_moliveira88 right now! 🇵🇹
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 18, 2021
The Portuguese star is fastest on Friday! 🔥#GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/G1rqnRKgiG
Top 10 on combined times after Friday:
- Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) 1:20.690
- Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) + 0.220
- Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) + 0.333
- Alex Rins (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR) + 0.387
- Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) + 0.418
- Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) + 0.441
- Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) + 0.453
- Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) + 0.491
- Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) + 0.502
- Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) + 0.538
