Bezzecchi fastest as Marquez takes out Zarco in dramatic Practice 2

The quickest rider heading into Practice 2, Johann Zarco was one of the last riders to set a lap time as Jack Miller led the way early on. 

Miller’s time of 1:22.667s was a tenth quicker than the rider he replaced at KTM, Miguel Oliveira, however, Jorge Martin soon bettered it by going three tenths clear.

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With Marc Marquez still in the garage and watching the action, Takaaki Nakagami was the only Honda rider in action although Practice 2 soon became a nightmare for the Japanese manufacturer as Nakagami suffered a fast crash at turn 11.

Nakagami lost the front-end as his machine was then left completely wrecked after barrel-rolling through the gravel. 

With debris still on the circuit, red flags were waved although the stoppage was very brief. 

With the action back underway, Marquez, who finished second in Practice 1 headed out of pit lane while Oliveira went quickest by nearly half a second. 

Usually the rider looking for a tow, Marquez’s stunning record at Sachsenring made him an obvious rider to follow, which rookie Augusto Fernandez did for several laps.

Coming out of the final corner Marquez gave his fellow Spaniard a long look before purposefully  running wide at turn one, as Fernandez decided not to stay behind. 

Despite Ducati showing good speed with Martin, Zarco and Bagnaia, all of whom were inside the top four, Oliveira increased his advantage but another tenth just over half the session remaining. 

As Luca Marini added another Ducati at the front of the field, Oliveira was proving difficult to catch as he broke into the 1m 20s barrier. 

A time of 1:20.862s was set by Oliveira which meant his lead was over six tenths from the Mooney VR46 rider.

Marini did manage to get within half a second on his next lap around, before yellow flags were deployed due to a bizarre crash for Raul Fernandez.

The Aprilia rider lost control well beyond the exit of turn 11 before remaining on the circuit and sliding to a stop just before turn 12. 

Finding a lot of time at the beginning of his first time attack run, Fabio Di Giannantonio went fastest in P3 - second on combined times behind Zarco. 

Oliveira’s strong P2 performance was not able to carry through until the end of the session as he crashed at turn 10 with a quarter of the P2 remaining.

Marquez, who already made a big save in P1, made another ridiculous save at turn 11 as he nearly lost the front on two occasions.

Bagnaia then put his name atop the leaderboard as Ducati’s domination resulted in them locking out the top five positions.

However, Ducati’s part was spoiled when Miller jumped up to P2 while Marquez looked on course to challenge the top times before losing time in sector three.

Then came the most dramatic crash of P2 as Marc Marquez lost the front-end of his Honda at turn one.

But that was not it as Marquez wiped out Zarco who was exiting pit lane. What was a huge impact resulted in the front wheel of Zarco’s Ducati being taken clean off by Marquez’s machine. 

The session was red-flagged for a second time, but when the action resumed, fast lap times continued to come as Bezzecchi finished fastest ahead of Martin and Aleix Espargaro.

There were late falls for Gresini duo Alex Marquez and Di Giannantonio.