In the lead up to today’s qualifying session at Sachsenring, each Moto3 practice session was topped by a different rider.
Free Practice 1 was topped by Raul Fernandez on the Sama Qatar Angel Nieto machine, with Friday’s second session lead by Japanese rider, Ayumu Sasaki. Marcos Ramirez set the overall pace for combined practice times after topping the timing sheets in Free Practice 3.
As the sessions went on, the riders found themselves closer and close to Danny Kent’s four-year-old lap record. Fernandez and Saski set times of 1:26.5 to put themselves just four-tenths away. However, when the chequered flag fell at the end of Free Practice 3, Ramirez had snatched away the title but just over a tenth of a second.
Free Practice 1:
The first on-track action of the weekend may have been lead by Raul Fernandez, but he had Marcos Ramirez hot on his tail and just two-tenths off his lap time.
Rounding out the top three way Assen podium finisher, Jakub Kornfeil, the Czech rider on the Redox PruestelGP machine.
John McPhee was the early pace setter, and looked set to retain the top spot all the way to the chequered flag, until Ramirez threw himself to the top of the timing screens with just three minutes remaining.
McPhee finished the session in fourth, just six-thousands of a second ahead of Tony Arbolino and the VNE Snipers machine.
Free Practice 2:
As Friday’s Moto3 action drew to a close, it was Ayumu Sasaki who lead the pack for Free Practice 2. his fastest time of the session left him nearly three-tenths of a second clear of his nearest rival, Jakub Kornfeil.
This result saw Free Practice 2 for all three classes lead by the Sepang International Circuit teams; Jonas Folger and the Petronas Sprinta Racing team topped the Moto2 timings, whilst Fabio Quartararo on his Petronas Yamaha SRT bike topped MotoGP timings.
Back in Moto3, the top three was completed by Kaito Toba and his Honda Team Asia machine, who set a time just 0.095s faster than championship leader, Aron Canet.
Free Practice 3:
Whilst Marcos Ramirez and his Leopard Racing machine were on their way to smashing the current Sachsenring lap record, Can Öncü was enjoy the huge tow to throw himself up to second fastest.
The pair set these lap times with nearly 10 minutes still left on the clock, and were unable to be beaten for the rest of the morning session. Their nearest rival was Filip Salac and his Redox PrüstelGP bike, who set a 1:26.112 to put himself third fastest.
Just behind Salac came Alonso Lopez and Ayumu Sasaki, with lap times that saw the top 5 covered by less than three-tenths of a second.
Gabriel Rodrigo took sixth, just ahead of the Japanese pairing of Kaito Toba and Tatsuki Suzuki.
