Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez extended his championship lead with victory in the German GP at the Sachsenring.
The win extends Marquez’s win streak at the German circuit in all classes to seven, with the Sachsenring quickly becoming one of the Spaniard’s favourite tracks.
The race started under mixed conditions. The track was wet due to the rain that had been falling since the morning, but it was slowly drying. Valentino Rossi took the hole shot and led from Andrea Dovizioso for the opening laps.
However, the quickest rider on track would be Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci. Petrucci, who has already proven his wet weather prowess at Silverstone last year and last time out at Assen, charged through the field and eventually took the lead of the race. It would be heartbreak yet again for the Italian however, with 18 laps left to go, he crashed out of the race.
With track conditions improving, some riders decided to switch to the intermediate tyres. Andrea Iannone was the first to do this, with most of the field following suit not long afterwards. Marc Marquez was the first to take a real gamble however. The Spaniard decided to switch to the slick tyres on lap 17, a gamble that really paid off.
Marquez was on fire on the slicks, lapping around five seconds quicker than anyone else on the track. The riders at the front still did not pit however, even with the Spaniard storming through the field.
Eventually, the leaders pitted, with Rossi putting on intermediates and the rest putting on the slick tyres. Dovizioso and Crutchlow’s decision to put the slicks on would turn out to be a great move, with the slick tyres being the quickest in the conditions. The Pair would storm off towards Scott Redding, who had pitted early on in the race for intermediates. Using their superior tyres the pair easily dispatched of Redding, who looked devastated he was unable to hang on to a podium in the pits.
Marquez would then go on to take the win and extend his championship lead. This was aided by another horror show of a ride from Jorge Lorenzo, who finished down in 15th position.
Behind the front three of Marquez, Crutchlow and Dovizioso were Redding, Andrea Iannone, Dani Pedrosa and Jack Miller. Miller was able to get another solid result in the wet.
Valentino Rossi finished in a disappointing eighth, with Hector Barbera and Alvaro Bautista rounding out the top ten.
MotoGP now takes a short break before the next round of the World Championship. Next time, MotoGP will return for the first time in over 19 years to the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
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