Sachsenring MotoGP: Marquez fastest, Rossi and Dovizioso to Q1

Marquez's nearest rival Fabio Quartararo had a massive moment at the end of the session when his Yamaha shook violently at Turn 11. While he didn't crash, he was left in obvious pain in his left shoulder.

The Frenchman, along with other Yamaha riders, also struggled with the first corner of the circuit early on.

Quartararo went off twice, and works rider Maverick Vinales then came close to hitting the wall on two occasions. Quartararo's teammate Franco Morbidelli also had a trip through the gravel at the corner.

At the start, Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro impressively came within four tenths of Marquez's Friday benchmark, and led the majority of FP3, with the Honda rider sitting second.

Quartararo then put on a new soft rear tyre and took the lead, setting the best time of the weekend with a 1m20.515s, which he recorded while running behind Marquez.

Vinales progressively closed the gap to Quartararo, in the end ending up just one tenth behind the rookie.

However, both Yamaha riders were beaten by Marquez in the end, the Honda rider doing a 1m20.347s on his second flyer after he had made a mistake on his first.

Quartararo ended up second from Vinales and Cal Crutchlow, who was fourth-fastest with a fractured right knee. Suzuki's Alex Rins was fifth, with Morbidelli taking sixth.

Danilo Petrucci and Jack Miller were the top Ducatis in seventh and eighth respectively, with ninth-placed Joan Mir making it two Suzukis in the top 10.

KTM rider Pol Espargaro also made it to Q2 in 10th, but ended the session with a crash at Turn 3.

Espargaro beat Valentino Rossi by 0.013s, the Yamaha man once again confined to Q1 - where he will be joined by Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso, who was only 14th.

Pramac Ducati rookie Francesco Bagnaia returned to riding after missing FP2 following his hospital visit in the aftermath of his FP1 crash. He was last in the Saturday morning session.

Session results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'20.347
2	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	1'20.515	0.168
3	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'20.634	0.287
4	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'20.653	0.306
5	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'20.679	0.332
6	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	1'20.833	0.486
7	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'20.867	0.520
8	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'20.891	0.544
9	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1'20.986	0.639
10	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'21.019	0.672
11	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'21.026	0.679
12	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'21.086	0.739
13	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'21.125	0.778
14	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'21.184	0.837
15	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	1'21.375	1.028
16	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	1'21.381	1.034
17	5	Johann Zarco	KTM	1'21.435	1.088
18	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	1'21.443	1.096
19	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'21.611	1.264
20	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'21.832	1.485
21	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	1'21.972	1.625
22	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1'22.150	1.803
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