Marquez stays on top in Germany

The Spaniard, who took pole, victory and fastest lap at the circuit in both of the past two years, dominated most of the session after lowering his weekend benchmark early on.

Tech 3 Yamaha man Bradley Smith interrupted his spell at the top with six minutes remaining, before Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso then both moved ahead of the Briton.

Marquez returned to top spot before the chequered flag and then improved again on his final lap, finishing up with a 1m21.183s.

Lorenzo was 0.183 seconds behind in second ahead of his championship-leading factory Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi.

Dovizioso and Smith completed the top five, followed by Marquez's Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Aleix Espargaro and Cal Crutchlow both crashed earlier in the session but returned to action on their second bikes to get through to Q2 in seventh and eighth respectively.

Andrea Iannone did not improve upon his time from practice two but still makes Q2 in ninth ahead of Pol Espargaro.

Scott Redding could not repeat his form from Friday and ended up 12th behind Maverick Vinales.