MotoGP: Quartararo, Marquez and Rossi take top THREE spots in FP1 at German GP.

Fabio Quartararo has made a strong start at the Sachsenring, beating Marc Marquez to first place by less than a tenth of a second in FP1.

Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) beat nine-time Sachsenring winner Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) to first place after putting in a 1:21.390 lap. He was 0.074 seconds ahead of Marquez, and Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) was 0.574 behind him in third.

Does that mean the ‘King of the Ring’s’ reign is under threat? It’s way too early to draw conclusions but it was a great start to the weekend for Quartararo as he got his first taste of the Sachsenring on a MotoGP bike. Marquez was the early pacesetter, but a late charge from the rookie sensation meant Quartararo drew first blood to take Friday morning honours.

There seems to be no Dutch GP hangover for both Rossi and Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar). The duo both crashed out of contention on Sunday in Assen but they made solid starts to their weekend in Germany, both riders set a 1:21.9 to finish third and fourth.

Assen winner Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) completed a top five split by 0.861 on a cloudy morning, with sixth pace Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and seventh fastest Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) the only other riders to get within a second of Quartararo’s time. Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Andrea Iannone led the two injured LCR Honda riders of Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) to complete the top ten.

HERE’S THE FULL BREAKDOWN FROM FP1 –