Sachsenring - 125cc first practice session

The 125cc World Championship leader, Marc Márquez's dominance of the series continued without respite at Sachsenring as the 17 year-old set the fastest lap of the session by some distance with a 1'27.435. That made Márquez the only rider under 1'28" in the session, and placed him a substantial 0.833s clear at the top of the timesheet.

Next up was Tuenti Racing's Pol Espargaró, who is just a single point behind Márquez in the standings, and the young Catalan rider had a few nervy moments during the session. After 18 minutes he controlled his Derbi machine well in a run-off at turn eight, and towards the end of the session avoided a collision with wildcard rider Marvin Fritz. Nevertheless his intentions of challenging Márquez this weekend were made clear with a time of 1'28.268.

Completing an all-Derbi top three was Espargaró's team-mate Efrén Vázquez (+1.190s on Márquez), with German duo Jonas Folger (Team Ongetta) and Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo) clearly well motivated for their home event as they both timed within a tenth of the second of Vázquez. Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany), Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX) and Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) completed the top eight in the hour-long session.
A notable absence from the practice was Bancaja Aspar rider Nico Terol, who is currently third in the Championship. The Spaniard, who suffered a bruised lung and two fractured vertebra in a last-lap crash at Catalunya almost two weeks ago, was given the medical all-clear to ride this weekend but after an uncomfortable Thursday night decided to leave a final decision on whether he will ride until Saturday morning.