Another masterclass from Honda’s Marc Marquez meant he took his ninth straight win at Sachsenring – his sixth MotoGP victory in the German GP ahead of Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales.
It was yet another storming start from Jorge Lorenzo abode his Ducati to take the lead of the German GP from Pramac Racing Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci as pole-sitter dropped down to fourth ahead of Yamaha’s Rossi.
Behind, it was a coming together of four riders that resulted in the retirement of KTM’s Pol Espargaro and Suzuki’s Alex Rins. Espargaro had a slight off in the right-hander and slide across to the gravel trap, taking Rins with him.
Pramac Racing Ducati’s Jack Miller and Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone had to take an evasive action with the former having been forced to move across the gravel trap as they both dropped down the order.
At the front, Lorenzo kept the lead as Marquez cleared Petrucci in the chase of the factory Ducati but it wasn’t long for the Honda rider to clear Lorenzo in the left-hander at Turn 13 to take over the race lead.
A few laps later, Rossi who had already cleared Petrucci, followed suit in Turn 10 when Lorenzo went wide to take second position. The Ducati’s struggles continued on when he was picked on by Petrucci to demote him outside the podium.
Once in the lead, only a crash or a mechanical issues would have stopped Marquez from winning the German GP. He eventually did it in style to extend his winning record at Sachsenring with his ninth win across categories.
It was wild celebrations from Marquez as he took off into the grandstand among the fans. For Yamaha though, it was a double podium with Rossi breaking his third place jinx to finish a fine second from Vinales.
The Spaniard had to fight back after he lost few positions at the start of the race. He cleared Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and retook the lost place to Angel Nieto Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista along with the struggling Lorenzo to get behind Petrucci.
With a clear pace advantage, Vinales cleared Petrucci as well to take the final spot on the podium leaving the Italian in fourth and the best independent rider ahead of Bautista, who continued his fine run this season.
The Spaniard first cleared Honda’s Dani Pedrosa followed by Vinales, Dovizioso and finally Lorenzo. He did lose out to Vinales in the end but had enough gas to keep fifth ahead of the factory Ducati pair.
As seen earlier in the season, Lorenzo ran out of steam towards the end to finish only sixth with Dovizioso also having a similar race to be seventh. Pedrosa was a lonely eighth as Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco made it up for a poor qualifying to ninth.
The same was for KTM’s Bradley Smith who also made up places to a Top 10 finish from another charger Tech 3 Yamaha’s Hafizh Syahrin. After his opening lap scuffle, Iannone recovered to 12th from Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat.
Like Iannone, even Miller fought back to 14th as the lone Aprilia of Scott Redding scored the final point – his teammate Alexis Espargaro was a non-starter after his crash in the Warm-up earlier in the day.
It was a good day for the returning Stefan Bradl in the Marc VDS Honda with the German finishing 16th – just missing on a point with teammate Thomas Luthi in 17th from Angel Nieto Ducati’s Karel Abraham and Avintia Ducati’s Xavier Simeon.
Joining Espargaro and Rins in the retirement list were both the LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow and Takaaki Nakagami – the former was battling for Top 5 position with the latter in the fight with Zarco for a place inside the Top 10.