Kent Dominant In FP1

Jul 10, 2015
2 min read

Conditions were cold for the start of the German Grand Prix weekend, with track temperatures at the notoriously difficult Sachsenring circuit piquing at just 21C. Couple that with a green track and a number of riders fell victim to the low grip levels.

Miguel Oliveira's weekend has ended almost before it began after fracturing his left hand in a high-side crash coming out of turn one eight-minutes into the session. The Portuguese rider is returning home for surgery today, but his weekend is over.

French rider Jules Danilo dropped his Ongetta-Rivacold Honda into the gravel tarp of turn twelve ten minutes later, but walked away unscathed. Wild card riders Max Kappler and Jonas Geitner didn't enjoy the best of sessions in front of their home crowd. The former crashed at turn seven late in the session and the other lost the chain from his FTR-Honda. Jorge Martin and Romano Fenati also crashed late in the morning.

One man who had no such problems was championship leader Danny Kent. The Leopard Racing rider looks in commanding form ahead of the team's home round having topped the time sheets by over six-tenths of a second with a 1:27.026.

Following Kent on the timing screens and on track was Sachsenring débutante Fabio Quartararo. The French rider latched onto the back of the Briton and took his EG 0,0 Honda to 2nd. Enea Bastianini completed the top three but over eight-tenths down.

Efren Vazquez was 4th fastest this morning as he seeks to regain his early season form, whilst Fenati ended up 5th despite his crash. Luckily for him, his team managed to fix the damage to his bike as so he could go for a quick shakedown ahead of FP2 this afternoon.

Brad Binder was just a couple of tenths back in 6th. The South African should go well this weekend. He very nearly won the race last year on the Mahindra, so expect the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider to challenge for the podium on Sunday.

Jakub Kornfeil, Niccolo Antonelli, Andrea Locatelli and Isaac Vinales completed the top ten.

FP1 Top 10:

1st Danny Kent, Leopard Racing Honda, 1:27.026

2nd Fabio Quartararo, EG 0,0 Honda, 1:27.666

3rd Enea Bastianini, Gresini Team Honda Moto3, 1:27.886

4th Efren Vazquez, Leopard Racing Honda, 1:27.993

5th Romano Fenati, SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM, 1:28.180

6th Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Ajo, 1:28.335

7th Jakub Kornfeil, SIC Racing Team KTM, 1:28.425

8th Niccolo Antonelli, Ongetta-Rivacold Honda, 1:28.448

9th Andrea Locatelli, Gresini Team Honda Moto3, 1:28.459

10th Isaac Vinales, Husqvarna Factory Laglisse, 1:28.488