Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia: The Sachsenring Reveals the Two Opposing Faces of Ducati
Building on the positive impression he made during Friday’s first practice session, Marc Marquez did even better in the decisive session for direct advancement to Saturday’s Q2, with a time of 1:19.394—more than enough to leave the rest of the MotoGP riders in his wake. While Ducati has reason to smile about Marquez, the same cannot be said for Pecco Bagnaia—quite the opposite, in fact: the rider from Piedmont, who could not go faster than 1:20.132, finished in thirteenth place and will be forced to compete in Q1 to try to move up the grid.
As for the riders already in Q2, in addition to Marc Marquez, there are Raúl Fernández (Aprilia Trackhouse, +0.166), Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati VR46, +0.280), Alex Marquez (Ducati Gresini, +0.317), Jack Miller (Yamaha Pramac, +0.447), Ai Ogura (Aprilia Trackhouse, +0.512), Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia, +0.602), Jorge Martin (Aprilia, +0.617), Pedro Acosta (KTM, +0.617), and Franco Morbidelli (Ducati VR46, +0.651).
In addition to Bagnaia, Enea Bastianini (KTM Tech3, +0.651), Brad Binder (KTM, +0.674), Luca Marini (Honda, +0.820), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha, +0.824), Joan Mir (Honda, +0.834), Diogo Moreira (Honda LCR, +0.928), Maverick Viñales (KTM Tech3, +1.157), Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha, +1.467), Alex Rins (Yamaha, +1.620), and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda, +1.727).
Saturday will be a busy day for the MotoGP riders: the final free practice session is scheduled for 10:10 a.m., while Q1 will start at 10:50 a.m., followed by Q2. At 3:00 p.m., it will be time for the Sprint Race, consisting of 15 laps: last year, Marc Marquez won the short race (he would also win the main race), ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Quartararo.
