Source: Supplied.

Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Vinales overcame a heavy crash on the opening day of MotoGP at Sachsenring, Germany, to lead Friday’s timesheets with a 1m22.161s laptime.

Having topped FP1, Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) kept his pace high to end as the only rider within half a second of Vinales. The Italian was able to cut over 1.3 seconds off his time from the first session, weather playing less of a role in the second session of the day.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) is going to have to work hard to keep his King of Sachsenring title, the Spaniard’s 1m22.775s 0.614s off Vinales’ time. His time also made it three different manufacturers in the top three, suggesting that Honda’s grip on the German circuit beginning to loosen.

In 2016 Marquez is looking for his seventh straight win at the Sachsenring. As in Assen, Marquez may not be breaking records but his pace is significantly better than that of his title rivals.

Fourth was Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), fresh off a private test in Sepang. He’s had an up and down season, but there’s no denying the Brit still has his speed from previous years. 0.113s back from Crutchlow was his twice-former teammate Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), 0.679s off the overall leader.

Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing), Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Yakhnich), Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) and Yonny Hernandez (Pull & Bear Aspar Ducati Team) completed the top 10. Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) ended up 13th.

Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was the leading Yamaha rider in 11th, Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in 14th with Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) a disastrous 16th place. There’s a significant amount of work to do for all the M1 riders, they’ll need to make the most of any dry track time on Saturday to avoid an unwanted trip to Q1.

In Moto2 it was Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) who set the pace, while Aussie Remy Gardner (Tasca Racing Scuderia) was 23rd despite missing part of the opening practice due to his recent outing at the circuit. Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing Moto3) led the way in Moto3.