As it happened: Francesco Bagnaia claims brilliant pole at German MotoGP
Francesco Bagnaia once again lead the way as Ducati continued to dominate with Aleix Espargaro again offering resistance in a frantic FP3 session at the Sachsenring ahead of the German Grand Prix.
Initially it had been Aleix Espargaro who showed his hand and lowered the record that Bagnaia had set on Friday, but not to be outdone the Ducati man immediately claimed the top spot back, then lowered his time further to a session topping 1m 19.765s.
Espargaro had the ability to set a sub 1m 20s lap and would have done so earlier in the session but found Franco Morbidelli on track.
The Aprilia man eventually got there, again proving to be the biggest competition to Ducati, moving up to second just after Jack Miller had taken the position near the end of the session.
Miller had found his own traffic on track, arriving on the same piece of tarmac as Johann Zarco. The Australian channelled his frustrations into his next lap, which held on for third.
Zarco, who took pole at this round last year, finished the session fourth himself, his Prima Pramac Ducati team-mate Jorge Martin moving up at the same time as Bagnaia set the new record with his time remaining good enough for fifth, making it four bikes for the Bologna factory inside the top five.
The session got off to a slow start for current world champion Fabio Quartararo as he suffered an early excursion through the gravel at turn one, learning the limits of his Yamaha around the German track.
Getting down to business, the Frenchman was soon in the mix, hitting the top three briefly in a tight session when the track was at its busiest.
The leader in the title hunt then experienced an unexpected hitch - as he looked behind before starting a final time attack his visor popped off his helmet, which the #20 frantically tried to reattach.
It was impossible with gloves on, so Quartararo re-entered the pits. As it was mended back in his pit box both LCR bikes fell in quick succession, bringing out the yellow flags and stopping the damage to Quartararo’s session, allowing him to finish sixth.
Joan Mir reacted by tumbling down the timesheets and pushed to the limit to go fifth. No further improvements were possible for the Suzuki rider as he gave so much that he ran straight on into the turn one gravel.That lap remained good enough to hold seventh.
Luca Marini popped up late into eighth for Mooney VR46 Racing Team, propelling yet another Ducati into the top ten.
Maverick Vinales ensured both Aprilia’s made it directly to Q2, moving up into eighth late on.
Takaaki Nakagami had done enough for that spot before his heavy fall at turn one, his time dropping to tenth.
