Lavourite Stefan Bradl topped the timesheets for LCR Honda MotoGP
An eventful day of track action came to a close at the Sachsenring on the first day of the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland with local favourite Stefan Bradl topping the timesheets for LCR Honda MotoGP. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo suffered another heavy accident in the afternoon session, landing on his injured shoulder, unfortunately putting him out of the Germany race and possibly the next.
Bradl’s Friday-topping lap time came in the form of a 1’22.030, with Lorenzo ending the day second overall from Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa and their respective teammates Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez. Completing the top eight were Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow, Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden – who experienced a late crash at Turn 3, which followed a pair of earlier off-track moments – and Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro, the leading CRT runner.
The most significant happening of the day came just oven ten minutes into the afternoon session. Having broken his left collarbone at Assen only 15 days earlier, Lorenzo lost control exiting Turn 10 and landed heavily on his already damaged shoulder. The session was briefly stopped as the stricken Yamaha M1 was lying in the middle of Turn 11, while the World Champion was checked over.
Dani Pedrosa – “Today we focused on tyres, in order to find out what the ideal choice will be for Sunday’s race and lately we have had some problems with the compounds being a little harder than normal. I had time to test all the options and in general things went well. However, tomorrow we have to find a slightly better setup for cornering. As for Jorge, let’s see how his condition is before commenting –we still don’t know details. At the moment it doesn’t look good for him, so I wish him well.”
Only three and a half minutes after the restart, Crutchlow suffered his second crash of the day – and both had come at the rapid Turn 11. When he was sliding down the track, several pieces of gravel became trapped inside his right glove, which had to be removed by the medical staff at the Clinica Mobile and the wounds cleaned up. He has been declared fit to ride tomorrow. In the morning, Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and Energy T.I. Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone had gone down at the same corner. For Dovizioso the crash meant that he wrote off his only GP13 “Evolution” chassis, having to revert back to the regular GP13 for the rest of the weekend.
Marc Marquez – “The day has been very positive and I’m very happy with how practice has gone so far, as I have been slowly improving. From the start I felt very comfortable –with it being a smaller circuit, the speed isn’t so different compared to when you’re riding a Moto2 bike. Of course, you reach your braking markers quicker and you have to use new references, but it isn’t that different to other circuits. This helps me to adapt a little more quickly. We have been working hard, but there are still some places on the track where I have to improve, be more consistent and find a good setup. Tomorrow we will try to continue in the same way, just as focused. I am sorry to see Jorge suffer another big crash, we wait to hear news and I send him my best wishes.”
Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham was struck down with flu and fever and for that reason did not take part in the afternoon period, whereas Hiroshi Aoyama was back in action with Avintia Blusens for the first time since his hand-injuring crash on the Saturday of the Catalan Grand Prix. In Practice 2, GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Bryan Staring added his name to the list of fallers.
