​Marc Marquez finished the opening Friday Practice session at the German Grand Prix on the highest note, with three Ducati riders lining up inside the top four as the controversy of the session unfolded. The defending MotoGP champion clocked a best lap of 1m19.394s aboard the factory Ducati, edging Raul Fernandez’s Trackhouse Aprilia by 0.166 seconds as Ducati and Aprilia traded the best time for long stretches of the hour-long running.
From the very start of the session, Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi stamped his authority on the timesheets, quickly surpassing Fernandez’s FP1 benchmark and then pushing his pace even further to a 1m20.646s. That early pace left him a touch over a tenth clear of the two Ducati riders, Marc Marquez and Alex Marquez, with Fernandez sitting in fourth for Trackhouse. The order remained steady into the midpoint of the session, when Bezzecchi again shaved a chunk of time off, extending his advantage as he continued to dominate the field. The Italian’s best remained unbeaten into the later stages, until Fabio Di Giannantonio, riding for VR46, slammed in a scintillating 1m20.104s to raise the benchmark once more.
Alex Marquez made progress on the Gresini Ducati, narrowing the gap to Bezzecchi to within a second, before Marc Marquez surged to the top with 14 minutes remaining, becoming the first rider to seal a lap under the 1m20 barrier. Fernandez briefly reclaimed top spot for Trackhouse with a late run, but it was short-lived as Di Giannantonio moved back into the lead with a 1m19.674s. Alex Marquez improved again to move into second, pushing Bezzecchi and Marquez down the order as the session intensified.
Yet it was Marc Marquez who stole the show in the final stretch. With just three minutes left on the clock, the eight-time race winner produced a final flying lap that put him on pole position by a margin of around a tenth and a half. Fernandez finished as Marquez’s closest challenger in second, thanks to a late flying lap, while Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez slotted into third and fourth, respectively, after a strong day for the VR46 and Gresini outfits.
Jack Miller delivered a standout effort to secure fifth on the Pramac Yamaha, ahead of the remaining three Aprilias—Ai Ogura, Marco Bezzecchi, and Jorge Martin—who filled sixth, seventh, and eighth. Pedro Acosta found himself in ninth on the factory KTM, sitting six tenths off the pace, while Franco Morbidelli’s late surge for VR46 propelled him to 10th and a guaranteed spot in Q2.
The absence of Francesco Bagnaia from the top ten was notable, as the two-time world champion finished 13th behind Enea Bastianini and Brad Binder’s KTM machines. A late yellow flag sparked by Bastianini’s crash at Turn 9 may have influenced Bagnaia’s momentum, though marshals had cleared the circuit in time for the final flying laps. Luca Marini ended the session in 14th on the best of the Hondas, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo just behind him in 15th by a margin of a mere 0.004 seconds. Marini’s VR46 teammate Joan Mir completed the early-day action by finishing 16th after a late off in the final minutes of the session.
As teams digest the data from Day 1 at the Sachsenring, the overall trajectory suggests a German GP weekend dominated by Ducati’s speed and endurance under the evolving conditions, with Marc Marquez signaling strong form on the factory Ducati heading into Saturday’s practice and Sunday’s race. For more insights and full session recaps, Motorsport.com continues to bring you in-depth analysis and results from the weekend’s action.