Scott Redding got his German Grand Prix weekend off to a good start, as he ended the opening day at the Sachsenring 15th on the timesheet.

Redding was the fastest of the four production Honda riders and also less than one second off the time of provisional pole sitter, Aleix Espargaro.

The 21-year-old Briton encountered some technical issues in this afternoon’s session, but heads into tomorrow’s final free practice and qualifying with confidence, having thoroughly enjoyed riding the Sachsenring circuit aboard a MotoGP machine for the first time.

He said: “The Sachsenring has never been one of my favourite circuits, but I’m enjoying riding it a lot on the MotoGP bike. So far, I’m quite happy. In the second free practice we had a small problem with the rear shock, so it was difficult to set good lap times, but we’re not overly concerned about it.

"We focused mainly on learning the track and the electronics, specifically the anti-wheelie function because here we can’t use so much power. Now we just need to find a little more rear traction, continue learning the track and improve my rhythm. If we can do this then, hopefully, we can close a bit further on the bikes ahead of us.”