Moto3: Home favourite Oettl fastest in Germany

Home rider Philipp Oettl (Südmetall Schedl GP Racing) went quickest in FP2 to end Friday at the Pramac Motorrad Deutschland Grand Prix at the top of the timesheets, beating second fastest Tony Arbolino (Marinelli Snipers Team) by 0.042 seconds, with Championship leader Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Moto3) in third.

Despite the threat of rain mid-way through the second Free Practice session, all but three of the lightweight class field set their fastest laps of the day in the afternoon. German Oettl started his weekend off by setting the third fastest time in FP1, with the Jerez race winner then going over half a second quicker in the afternoon to give the Sachsenring faithful something to cheer about. Arbolino was P11 in the morning, with the Italian improving his time by over a second to jump up to second quickest, with FP1’s quickest man Martin having his final lap time cancelled for exceeding track limits in FP2 – he ends the day 0.046 off Oettl.

John McPhee (CIP – Green Power) continued his solid start to the German GP, the Scotsman ends the opening day fourth fastest after finishing second in FP1 – 0.136 back. Rounding out the top five on the opening day was Bester Capital Dubai’s Marcos Ramirez, the Spaniard climbing one place from his P6 this morning to end the day fifth on combined times.

Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0) was sixth on the combined timesheets, cementing a top ten place at the end of day one in Germany – 0.239 back, with Gabriel Rodrigo (RBA BOE Skull Rider) in seventh after finishing FP1 in ninth.

Eighth after the first two Free Practice sessions was Albert Arenas (Angel Nieto Team Moto3), who improved from 13th in the morning despite a crash at Turn 1 at the end of the day. Ninth quickest was Jakub Kornfeil (Redox PrustelGP), finishing 0.068 ahead of tenth place Fabio Di Giananntonio (Del Conca Gresini Moto3) – the Italian improving from P14 in FP1 as he hunts down the points leaders in the title fight.

Ai Ogura (Asia Talent Team) and Nakarin Atiratphuvapat (Honda Team Asia) crashed in FP2 – both riders ok.