MotoGP never fails to provide action and keeps us guessing every race weekend. Today’s German Grand Prix looks pretty normal on the outside – Marquez brothers dominate another race – but it was far from simple.
A defiant finish and 8 DNFs, what actually happened in todays MotoGP race?
Flying from the start
The German Grand Prix started off like many this season, with Marc Marquez getting a great start and an immediate lead. The Ducati rider was quick to pull a lead ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio. His gap only increased as the race progressed.
Marquez set the fastest lap of the race very early on and kept the pace for the full 30 lap stint. By lap 15, he was leading P2 by two and a half seconds.
Behind him, a battle for P3 was unfolding. Alex Marquez found himself within striking distance of Bezzecchi, giving spectators a great show as the two battled for position. With the corners of the circuit being tricky to master and many falling victim in the first sector, the duo did well to remain on the track. Alex would go onto claiming that position, but not by fighting for it.
Early Crashes
Todays race was one that many will want to forget. In the early stages of the race, we saw three riders go off into the gravel.
The first of the bunch was Lorenzo Savadori, who made his way onto the gravel on Lap 2. The Aprilia rider for this weekend was able to get his bike going and re-joined the race two laps down.
Miguel Oliveira was the next to go, crashing on Lap 4 in the 4th sector. Almost like clockwork, the KTM of Pedro Acosta became the next victim, losing his rear end and crashing on Lap 4 too. Acosta was running in P5 behind Alex Marques at the time.
3 incidences before lap 5 – the audience assumed that would be the end of the chaos.
Race closes in Chaos
While generally quiet, there were some entertaining battles during the later stages of the race. Teammates Joan Mir and Luca Marini were seen going back and forth trying to each claim P11.
The chaos resumed however on lap 18 when Fabio Di Giannantonio lost the front of his bike into turn one and crashed from P2. What would have certainly been a guaranteed podium became a disaster for the Italian rider. Seconds later Joan Zarco lost it at the very same corner.
Turn 1 became a tricky corner for many riders, including Marc Marquez who was seen wobbling but kept control of his bike.
2 laps later on lap 20, from P2 Marco Bezzecchi crashed at turn 1. This promoted Alex Marquez to P2 and the other Ducati Francesco Bagnaia to P3, up 7 places.
Ai Ogura was not able to tackle the corners of the German Grand Prix, losing control of his bike and crashing, taking Joan Mir out with him. The duo were battling for position and there was little Mir could have done to avoid the incident. Joining them at the site of the crash was Savadori, who found the gravel once again. Given a second chance, the Aprilia rider only made it to lap 22 before finally DNFing from the race.
Only 10 riders remained, making it the smallest number of race finishers since the 2011 Philip Island Grand Prix.
Another week, another Marc dominated race
Avoiding the chaos, Marc Marquez came home to finish his 200th MotoGP race start dancing across the finish line, 7 and a half seconds ahead of his brother. Marc secured his 69th race win, becoming the rider with the second most race wins in history.
Behind him was his brother Alex Marquez and teammate Francesco Bagnaia, closing off the podium. All 10 riders to finish todays race were able to score points.