The German GP this weekend is the first MotoGP visit to the country since 2019 after last year’s event had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ducati’s Jack Miller set the first benchmark with 1: 23.367 minutes when the Italian brand hit a track where it hasn’t won since 2008 and hasn’t been on the podium since 2016.
Honda has been the dominant force at the Sachsenring for 10 years, and Marc Marquez has been unbeaten in all classes since 2010.
The six-time MotoGP world champion expected on Thursday that the German GP this weekend would be his first of the season “without physical limitations”, and underpinned this in the early stages of FP1 with a 1: 22.348-minute peak.
On the track with only three right-hand corners, where Marquez struggled with arm and shoulder this year, Marquez moved up to the top of the timesheet with 1: 21.660 minutes.
In one phase, Marquez – who runs a new aero fairing in Germany – led a Honda 1-2-3 in front of LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and works team mate Pol Espargaro, although Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo would separate the Hondas in second place in the final phases .
The session of the world championship leader was interrupted shortly after 10 minutes when he fell in turn 12 in the Sachsen-curve left-hander at the foot of the hill.
Quartararo initially appeared to have injured his right shoulder, but was able to intervene again shortly afterwards.
Marquez’s lap time was not in jeopardy until the checkered flag, the Honda rider ended the morning 0.168 seconds ahead of Quartararo.
Nakagami completed the top three ahead of the Espargaro brothers Pol – who crashed early on Turn 2 – and led the Aprilia-mounted Aleix.
Miller was the first of the Ducati riders in sixth place, 0.391 seconds off pace, while Alex Rins on the Suzuki took an encouraging seventh when he returned to work after a broken arm in Barcelona and the missed Catalan GP.
Johann Zarco on the Pramac Ducati, world champion Joan Mir on the Suzuki and Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales completed the top 10, with Francesco Bagnaia on his Ducati just missing 11th place ahead of Barcelona’s race winner Miguel Oliveira on the KTM.
Brad Binder was last 1.3 seconds behind the pace at the sister factory KTM when he got a grip on the Sachsenring on a MotoGP motorcycle chassis for the first time.
Valentino Rossi took a cautious 20th place on his Petronas SRT Yamaha, with his team-mate Franco Morbidelli in 14th and between the Avintia rookies Luca Marini in 13th and Enea Bastianini in 15th.
Pramac’s Jorge Martin was the only other crash in the session, the rookie crashing early in the Sachsen curve on his way to 19th on the timesheet.