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Sachsenring MotoGP: Marc Marquez on top in practice three

Marc Marquez finished the third MotoGP practice session at the Sachsenring quickest, half a second faster than Aleix Espargaro's free practice two time

The championship leader's closet competitor was Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, who came close to toppling Honda rider Marquez, but finished two tenths down .

Home rider Stefan Bradl set the first time in the 1m20s, and held on for third behind Marquez and Lorenzo.

Aleix Espargaro had been quickest throughout the opening day, and swapped fastest times in the opening minutes of practice three with Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi but he could not make it a clean sweep of top spots from the three practice sessions. His time was good enough for fourth.

Bradley Smith ditched his Yamaha after losing control in the chicane to add to the two shunts he suffered during free practice one, but managed to bump start it on track to continue back to the pits, and did well to recover to fifth - 0.4 seconds down on Marquez.

Despite good early pace from Rossi, he nearly did not make the top 10 but managed to post a time for sixth in the closing seconds, while Marquez's team-mate Dani Pedrosa managed seventh.

Turn 11 was the cause of two big falls, starting with Broc Parkes 25 minutes into the session, but it was Pol Espargaro's wobble at the end that brought the yellow flags out as his Yamaha spread several parts across the gravel, leaving him unable to better eighth.

Andrea Iannone and Alvaro Bautista completed the top 10 that will go through to Q2 in the afternoon qualifying session.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m21.581s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m21.848s  +0.267s
 3.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m21.874s  +0.293s
 4.  Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha        1m21.997s  +0.416s
 5.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m22.001s  +0.420s
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m22.041s  +0.460s
 7.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m22.086s  +0.505s
 8.  Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m22.101s  +0.520s
 9.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m22.162s  +0.581s
10.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m22.221s  +0.640s
11.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m22.234s  +0.653s
12.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         1m22.431s  +0.850s
13.  Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                1m22.500s  +0.919s
14.  Scott Redding     Gresini Honda         1m22.706s  +1.125s
15.  Nicky Hayden      Aspar Honda           1m22.840s  +1.259s
16.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda           1m22.960s  +1.379s
17.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda         1m23.064s  +1.483s
18.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda Aprilia          1m23.207s  +1.626s
19.  Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia           1m23.290s  +1.709s
20.  Colin Edwards     Forward Yamaha        1m23.555s  +1.974s
21.  Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m23.624s  +2.043s
22.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m23.738s  +2.157s
23.  Broc Parkes       PBM Aprilia           1m23.923s  +2.342s

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