Johann Zarco claimed provisional pole as he topped the first practice session at Round 7 of the MotoGP World Championship at the Sachsenring in Germany on Friday.

The French rider knocked Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez off the top spot in the final few minutes by 0.152s, setting the early benchmark in 1:20.702s, which was under the current race lap record.

Marquez has a remarkable record at the 3.67km track, where he has won 11 times in 11 visits. His most recent success there came in 2021, when the Spaniard made an emotional return to the top step following his comeback from injury.

The 30-year-old thrives at the European track, which provides a unique technical test of predominantly left-hand bends.

Marquez, who crashed out of the Sunday race at Mugello in Italy last weekend, almost lost the front of his RCV at Turn 7 in the opening stages.

However, he was soon at the top of the time sheets, leading LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami by 0.085s prior to a lull in track activity of around 15 minutes when some light rain began to fall.

Once the showers cleared, Jorge Martin – third in the championship – replaced Marquez at the top on the Pramac Ducati as the speeds began to creep up again.

Injured Aleix Espargaro, who slid off the factory Aprilia at Turn 1 around 10 minutes into the session, also led the times in the final eight minutes as the pace increased, with rain in the afternoon forecast ahead of second practice placing additional emphasis on the morning times.

In the inevitable final flurry of fast laps, it was Zarco who led the way from Marquez, while Espargaro was prominent in third despite his early mishap on the Aprilia. Espargaro is riding with two broken bones in his right heel sustained in a cycling accident, which hampered his prospects at Mugello.

Alex Marquez slotted into fourth on the Gresini Ducati, two tenths back on Zarco, with Martin slipping to fifth.

Fabio Quartararo crashed at Turn 1 as he began what would have been his final lap of the session, although the former premier class world champion still ended first practice in sixth on the Monster Energy Yamaha, 0.352s adrift of Zarco.

Quartararo’s last MotoGP victory was achieved at the German round last year.

His team-mate, Franco Morbidelli, went down moments before Quartararo’s slip-off at Turn 11 and ended the session in 18^th.

Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder, championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) and Fabio de Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati) were the first nine, with Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) also ensuring his progress to Q2 as he rounded out the top ten.

Binder’s KTM team-mate Jack Miller was 14th behind Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Factory).

Marquez’s factory Honda team-mate Joan Mir is absent this weekend with a hand injury while LCR Honda’s Alex Rins is also out after fracturing his right tibia and fibula at Mugello.