Marc Marquez on MotoGP championship charge thanks to perfect weekend in Germany
Marc Marquez (Lenovo Ducati) completed a perfect weekend and strengthened his MotoGP title charge with a commanding 10th premier-class victory in Germany.
Moving, as a result, the reigning world champion up to third in the standings behind Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura on a dramatic afternoon at the Sachsenring.
Starting from pole, Marquez made a great start by leading into Turn 1 – a repeat of the previous day’s Sprint race.
Behind him, brother Alex held second early on, keeping the SuperFile Trackhouse pairing of Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez at bay, while Fabio Di Giannantonio slipped to fifth on the opening lap.
Di Giannantonio’s race ended at Turn 10 when the front end folded as he chased Ogura. The crash was his first DNF of the season and a costly blow to his championship hopes.
On lap nine, Alex Marquez crashed out of a comfortable second place at Turn 13, leaving Marc with a 1.4-second cushion over Fernandez and Ogura.
From there, Marquez controlled the race to the flag, with Fernandez and Ogura completing a double rostrum for SuperFile Trackhouse.
Acosta, who fought his way through from seventh, finished fourth ahead of Martin, who extended his championship lead as the series moves to Silverstone after the summer break for the British GP in August.
Pecco Bagnaia completed the top six for Lenovo Ducati.
Marquez’s latest Sachsenring success drew him level with Giacomo Agostini’s record of 10 MotoGP wins at a single circuit and completed a 37-point weekend.
The result lifted him to third in the World Championship standings, four points clear of the absent Marco Bezzecchi, who crashed out of the Sprint race and had to undergo surgery to fix his broken collarbone.
“The goal for the weekend was to attack in order to recover as many points as possible,” said Marquez. “We managed to do so on a track that suits my riding style very well.
“I'm happy, but not completely happy...I would have loved to see Alex (Márquez) on the podium, given the pace he had.”
Ivan Ortola took his second Moto2 win at Sachsenring, beating Dani Holgado with Izan Guevara completing the podium.
Spain’s Brian Uriarte won the Moto3 race, passing Max Quiles on the final lap.
Matteo Bertelle snatched third from Marco Morelli on the run to the line.
Eddie O’Shea finished 10th on the MLav Racing Honda, while Casey O’Gorman (Sic 58 Squadra Corse) unfortunately crashed out early in the race.