– Marc Marquez celebrated a lights-to-flag victory in the sprint at the Sachsenring. The reigning MotoGP world champion left his brother Alex Marquez (Gresini) no chance for an attack. Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46) completed an all-Ducati podium.
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For the short race over 15 laps, all riders in the leading group chose the hard front and the soft rear tire. From this race on, the distance between the starting rows is no longer nine but twelve meters.
At the start, Marc Marquez took the lead ahead of his brother Alex. Behind them, Ai Ogura (Trackhouse-Aprilia) initially pushed past Di Giannantonio, but the Italian finished the first lap in third place ahead of the Trackhouse duo.
Di Giannantonio attached himself to the Marquez brothers in the early phase. The three Ducati riders were able to gradually pull away from the Aprilia duo Ogura, Raul Fernandez, and Jorge Martin.
Marc Marquez did not pull away at the front in the first quarter of the race. Alex Marquez followed him like a shadow, and right behind came the yellow Ducati of “Diggia”. Ogura was also not far behind the leading trio.
The gaps remained constant in the leading group; overall, there was only one overtaking maneuver. Pedro Acosta (KTM) was able to overtake Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) for eighth place in the first quarter of the race.
Otherwise, there were no elbow-to-elbow duels. Marc Marquez celebrated his fourth sprint win of this season. Overall, it was his 19th sprint win, making him the sole record holder ahead of Martin in this statistic.
“Of course, Alex pushed quite hard,” says the beaming winner. “I saw that he was always very close, even in the last laps, and yes, I just tried to maintain a consistent pace.”
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Alex Marquez and Di Giannantonio ensured a complete Ducati podium. “I tried,” says the younger Marquez, “to give my best, every lap, every corner. I rode the best race possible.”
“Still, due to my physical condition, I can’t manage to push 100 percent for the entire race. I still have to stay a bit in safety mode, and I am still riding a bit too stiff.”
For Aprilia, with Ogura, Fernandez, and Martin in fourth, fifth, and sixth places, only the role of chasers remained. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) finished directly behind Martin in seventh place (to the results).
The other world championship points were taken by Acosta and Quartararo. Rookie Diogo Moreira (LCR-Honda) collected no world championship points as tenth. After five laps, Franco Morbidelli (VR46-Ducati) caused the only retirement by crashing in turn 1.
With this result, Martin leads the world championship standings by eleven points ahead of Bezzecchi and 13 ahead of Di Giannantonio. Marc Marquez reduced his deficit to 32 points (to the world championship standings).
Marco Bezzecchi was not at the start. The Aprilia rider crashed in qualifying in turn 7 and suffered a complete, displaced fracture of the left collarbone. He traveled back to Italy, where surgery is planned.
The Grand Prix over 30 laps starts on Sunday at 2 p.m. (to the starting grid).
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