At a track where it has only won once before - back in the Casey Stoner era - the Borgo Panigale outfit placed six of its eight bikes in the top-10, including three at the top of the timesheet on Friday (17) at Sachsenring. It was a perfect start at a track where the Desmosedici have never been the strongest
There is no more bad track for the Desmosedici. Once known as a bike that did well only on long straight tracks, such as Lusail in Qatar or the Red Bull Ring in Austria, the Ducati bike has made a considerable leap in performance and now does well everywhere, including Germany.
In terms of history, Sachsenring is a favorable track even for Honda. In the 24 races contested at the Chemnitz circuit, the manufacturer with the golden wing has won 17 times, including the last 11 German GP races. The big asset, however, is Marc Márquez, who is out of action due to a fourth surgery on his right arm.
Without the Spaniard, who is usually phenomenal on counter-clockwise tracks like the short Saxon layout, the competition became more open. And the Ducati tried to stiffen from the first practice sessions to place itself as heir to the vacant throne. Their record, however, is not the best: the brand from Borgo Panigale only won at Sachsenring in 2008, still with Casey Stoner, and the last podium there dates back to 2016, with a third place achieved by Andrea Dovizioso in the rain.
At the end of the first day of activities, Francesco Bagnaia set the best time of the day in 1min20s018, lowering by 0s177 the record set by the oldest of the Marquez brothers still in the 2019 season.
"It was good. I'm happy. It was one of the best Fridays or the best Friday I've done this year. From the beginning of TL1, I felt great with my bike and we did a good job with used tires, so I'm pretty happy," Pecco said. "I would like to improve my pace for tomorrow. He is already great, but there is still something missing," he considered.
"The attack time was great, I enjoyed it a lot. It was a great day, I don't want to touch anything of the setup, I just want to drive. It's great that it's like this," he closed.
More competitive since the Italian GP, Luca Marini achieved 1min20s133 in the second practice of the day and was in second place, only 0s115 slower than the factory team's starter.
"It was a good first day for the whole Ducati: we worked well with the team, it was important to understand quickly how to use the tires here and this is where we can take a step forward," Marini said. "With the hard, I wasn't as fast as Pecco, and I really struggled with so less grip to make the bike turn, an aspect we need to work on," he followed.
"Anyway, the problem is clear and we'll come back on that in TL4. For now, the goal is to get direct access to Q2 in TL3, the key to dealing with qualifying," he warned. "Then we will analyze the data: in the afternoon, with the heat, everyone had more difficulty and we have to compare the data to gain something in terms of speed. I'm happy with this Friday", he summarized.
Coming from very lackluster performances in Italy and Catalunya, Jack Miller recovered on Friday and secured the third best time, only 0s193 away from his Ducati teammate.
"The bike is working well," Jack began, "It's great to be back at Sachsenring, already with a huge crowd, which is amazing to see. The day was good from the start. We took a huge step forward in the test in Barcelona and following on from there, what we learned and what we changed in Barcelona, really helped us to start well here in Germany, because I had been suffering a lot since the beginning of the year, to be honest, to stop bike," he reported.
"We changed my riding position a lot, moved the handlebars forward, and that immediately gave me a lot of confidence to explore the strengths of this bike and how it brakes," he explained. "To have three Ducati GP22s in the first three positions is impressive, because on paper this would not be a Ducati track. But we are showing once again that the GP22 is getting stronger and stronger, just like the Ducati.
As has traditionally happened in 2022, the break of Ducati's dominance came at the hands of another European bike: Aleix Espargaró's Aprilia. After a ride through the Disney of Paris to overcome the vexation of the Catalunya GP, when he got the lap count wrong and started saluting the crowd before the flag, the Catalan took fourth place, 0s201 behind the leader.
"Regarding how things went today, it wouldn't be a bad idea to race first and then go on vacation!" joked Aleix. "Joking aside, we did a good job today. Tire choice and tire management seem to be particularly important here, and from this point of view I was able to be fast with the hard rear," he commented.
"I made some mistakes in the attack time, but despite that, I did three laps in [1min]20s2 and it's not bad at all. We can improve even more, but I can consider myself satisfied with this start," he evaluated.
The Desmosedici, however, gave no chances to the competition and reappeared in fifth and sixth positions with Johann Zarco and Jorge Martín. The Pramac duo was separated by only 0s011.
"I am very satisfied with today's day and work," said Zarco. "I found the same positive sensations as in Barcelona and I'm getting to know the bike better and better. It's a track where we can go well and I hope I can do a good qualifying tomorrow," he tweeted.
Coming from a recent surgery, Martín said he suffered a little pain, but, even so, he left Friday happy.
"My arm hurt a little bit, so I couldn't push to the maximum, but I'm still very happy," Jorge declared. "I finished in sixth position, with a good time. We are all really close, so it won't be easy at all, but we have a good chance to do well," he concluded.
World Championship leader Fabio Quartararo set a best lap of 1min20s399 and finished seventh, 0s381 behind Pecco in Germany.
"I feel good, but I still lack some performance," Quartararo assumed. "I mean, our pace is not so bad, but in the first laps with a new hard tire, I was quite slow compared to the others, and we need to find a solution to find that 0s4, 0s5 that we are missing," he pondered.
"When I went out with a new hard tire, it felt like a used tire, so that's something we need to improve," he stressed. "The feeling is similar to Barcelona. We'll see who will and who won't improve when the temperature rises more this semaa weekend. I don't think that will be a big problem for us," he commented.
Third in the World Championship standings, Enea Bastianini was one of those who stayed out of the top-10 on Friday. 0s729 slower than Bagnaia, the Gresini rider was 13th and once again complained about the feeling with the front end of the GP21.
"We had a little bit of difficulty. Last year here was not easy either," recalled 'La Bestia'. "We know where we have to focus in order to be competitive and I am confident that we will be pare of the game tomorrow," he commented.
"We are still missing something in sectors two and three. Between turns six and eight, I don't feel good, I lack a lot of feeling with the front end, it affects a lot in the corners," he reported.
The MotoGP TL3 for the German GP at Sachsenring, the tenth round of the season, takes place this Saturday at 4:55 AM (EST).GRANDE PRÊMIO follows all the activities of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.