Friday Practice at the Sachsenring ended in fireworks for Fabio di Giannantonio as he obliterated the all-time lap record with a jaw-dropping 1:19.071, putting himself top of the timesheets.
From the start of Practice, the signs for a new overall best were there. As Pecco Bagnaia drew first blood with the initial flyer, it quickly became clear the grip was far better than during the morning’s FP1 session.
Lap times began tumbling almost immediately with Marc Marquez clocking the first 1:19 of the weekend just five minutes in while Marco Bezzecchi made good use of Aprilia’s new aero package to slot into the top six before crashing at turn 13. It wouldn’t be the day’s last fall.
The front simply didn't want to cooperate with Bez 💥#GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/hN4FQ2Matj
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) July 11, 2025
On fresh soft rubber, Pedro Acosta punched into the top three with his first 1:19, before going fastest – briefly – on his second run. The real surprise however came in the final minutes of the session.
Di Giannantonio, plagued by one-lap pace and qualifying struggles throughout all of 2025 so far, stormed to the front with a monstrous 1:19.071 lap obliterating Jorge Martin’s 2024 record.
It capped off a major turnaround in one-lap form for the VR46 rider, who has shown race pace all year but often started the races too far back to ride any form attack towards the podium places.
Behind him, the final shootout was quite frantic with Alex Marquez (riding through injury) turning heads by setting the second-fastest lap of the weekend.
Marc Marquez, Fabio Quartararo and Pedro Acosta capped off the top five with Franco Morbidelli following in 6th.
Bagnaia, despite early pace, struggled as the times came in in the final minutes of the session. His best effort – a 1:19.698 – left him only ninth behind Marco Bezzecchi and Jack Miller.
Brad Binder rounded out the direct Q2 spots pushing his KTM colleague Vinales out of the top 10 late in the session.
The Spaniard will have to fight his way through Q1 tomorrow morning.
Practice Friday ended with a double yellow as both Zarco and Aldeguer crashed separately in the closing moments. Aldeguer had already gone down earlier at Turn 1. Fortunately, all riders were unhurt.
