Francesco Bagnaia takes MotoGP points lead after German GP win after Jorge Martin’s crash, as Marc Marquez led Alex to be P2 and P3.
It was a clean start from pole for Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin in MotoGP German GP at Sachsenring as Trackhouse Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira just held off Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia from taking second. Behind, Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli was up to fourth.
It dropped Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez to fifth along with the other Trackhouse of Raul Fernandez who was sixth from Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales. The other Ducati of Enea Bastianini was eighth from Gresini’s Marc Marquez and KTM’s Brad Binder in the Top 10.
Things didn’t settle in front as Bagnaia not only pounced on Oliveira, but also cleared Martin to take the German GP lead with an inside line move. Even Morbidelli was on the charge as he cleared Oliveira and almost got his teammate Martin for second.
But the Spaniard didn’t give up as he stayed on the back of Bagnaia. Behind Oliveira lost fourth to A Marquez as Vinales joined this party. R Fernandez dropped out from seventh to ninth after M Marquez and Bastianini managed to clear him.
At the front, Martin came back on Bagnaia and retook the German GP lead, as Morbidelli started to hustle his VR46 mate. After couple of laps, the Pramac rider made a move on the factory Ducati and made it stick to make it a Pramac 1-2 in the order.
A Marquez was fourth from Oliveira as M Marquez and Bastianini joined the party after Vinales had a gravel moment to drop outside the Top 15 points places. Fernandez held onto to eighth from Binder as GASGAS Tech 3’s Pedro Acosta was 10th.
While VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi was 11th and in the points, teammate Fabio di Giannantonio was forced to retire due to a mechanical issue. Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was 12th from KTM’s Jack Miller, Tech 3’s Augusto Fernandez and LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami in the Top 15 points places.
As Martin led the way, Morbidelli dropped back and fell into the clutches of Bagnaia, who managed to retake second. The Pramac rider came under pressure from A Marquez in the fight for third and made the move stick after couple of attempts.
Morbidelli stayed on the tail of A Marquez, as M Marquez was up to fifth after passing Oliveira who lost sixth to Bastianini few laps later. It was Trackhouse pair of Oliveira and Fernandez in seventh and eighth as Acosta passed Binder for ninth.
While Bagnaia tried to catch Martin, A Marquez steadied in third but Morbidelli came under pressure from M Marquez. He made a move on the Italian after a wide moment, but when the Pramac rider came back, the two touched and made contact.
The move was under investigation but cleared off, as Bastianini made a move on M Marquez but the Spaniard retook the place from him despite some damage on his bike. In fact, he pressed again on Morbidelli and this time made it stick to take fourth.
Bastianini and Morbidelli had their back and forth fight for fifth where the former made the move stick but not for long as the latter came back on him to retake his place. But Bastianini fought back to take track position again from Morbidelli.
But it was drama ahead after Martin binned it at Turn 1 from the lead to hand Bagnaia the lead of German GP. Just then, M Marquez made a move on A Marquez to take second, with Bastianini then in fourth from Mrobidelli and a distant Oliveira.
It was Bagnaia in the end to make it four successive MotoGP wins after his first victory in German GP as he got past Martin to become the new points leader going into the summer break. It was Gresini 2-3 after M Marquez was second and A Marquez in third.
Bastianini was fourth from Morbidelli and Oliveira, as Acosta ended up seventh from Bezzecchi, Binder and R Fernandez in the Top 10. The rest of the points places saw Quartararo in 11th from recovering Vinales, Miller, A Fernandez and Nakagami.
Honda’s Luca Marini was 16th and just out of points ahead of LCR’s Johann Zarco, Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl, Honda’s Joan Mir and Yamaha’s Remy Gardner.
Result: https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1809937859614310580
Final: https://www.motogp.com/en/gp-results/2024/ger/motogp/rac/classification
Here’s how MotoGP sprint panned out