On a changeable Saturday in terms of weather, local hero Jonas Folger was not lucky enough to be able to show his potential in front of the home fans.
Jonas Folger took on the role as a substitute rider, as he has done for the last four Grand Prix, but this weekend has a special flavour as it is on home soil for the 29-year-old German, who last time raced at the legendary Sachsenring in the premier class MotoGP™ back in 2017. Folger concluded Friday with some positive results and notable improvements and was looking to continue on that path on Saturday. In this morning’s 30-minutes free practice session, he set a best effort in 1´31.235 in wet conditions, before improving to a 1´29.712 in Q1 on a drying track. That left him just 0.593 seconds off Raul Fernandez’s lap time, which earned him 20th spot on the starting grid for his home Grand Prix.
In the Sprint this afternoon, Folger got off to a pretty good start and was able to keep up well with the riders in front of him. Due to a riding error by Raul Fernandez, he made up one position, but unfortunately a few laps later he had a technical problem on his bike and had to retire from the race in the pits. Not a nice end for the ambitious athlete, who had expected a little bit more for this Sprint. But tomorrow in the main race there will be another chance to do well in front of the home fans when at 2:00pm the lights will go out at the Sachsenring for the main race of the weekend.
#94 Jonas FOLGER (GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3, KTM RC16)
Grid position: 20 / Sprint: NC
“The race was okay until I had a technical problem after a few laps and had to enter to pits. For tomorrow we have to find a bit more lean angle through mid-corner though, I think we can have a good fight with Raul Fernandez and maybe with Takaaki Nakagami if we manage to stay on them. A thank you to my team, I am looking forward to a hopefully nice race on Sunday in front of this dream setting. It is an honour for me to be actively involved in my home Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.”
#GermanGP - MotoGP™ Qualifying Results:
1 Francesco BAGNAIA / ITA / Ducati Lenovo Team / Ducati / 1´21.409
2 Luca MARINI / ITAA / Mooney VR46 Racing Team / Ducati / 1´21.487 +0.078
3 Jack MILLER / AUS / Red Bull KTM Factory Racing / KTM / 1´21.492 +0.083
20 #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 / KTM / 1´29.712 (Q1)
#GermanGP - MotoGP™ Sprint (15 Laps):
1 Jorge MARTIN / SPA / Prima Pramac Racing / Ducati / 20´21.871
2 Francesco BAGNAIA / ITA / Ducati Lenovo Team / Ducati / +2.468
3 Jack MILLER / AUS / Red Bull KTM Factory Racing / KTM / +3.287
NC #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 / KTM
MotoGP™ World Standing:
1 Francesco BAGNAIA / ITA / Ducati / 140
2 Jorge MARTIN / SPA / Ducati / 119
3 Marco BEZZECCHI / ITA / Ducati / 113
21 #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / KTM / 7
#GermanGP - MotoGP™ Time Schedule for Sunday June 18th (CEST):
09:45 - 09:55 Warm Up
14:00 Race (30 Laps - 110.130 km)
