Marc Marquez has taken his 8th consecutive victory at the Sachsenring, after fending off home hero Jonas Folger.
It was anything but plain sailing for Marquez in the beginning, who came under threat from Jonas Folger early on. Folger piled on the pressure, eager to impress in front of his home crowd. He eventually took the lead and started to create a gap between him and the factory Honda, and Marquez quietly followed Folger round, waiting for the right moment to overtake and run away with the lead.
Even after Marquez took back the lead, Folger wasn’t letting him get away and was lapping faster than him in some sectors. The gap between the pair remained at 0.2 seconds, but during the closing laps Marquez began to break away leaving Folger to settle for 2nd in front of his home crowd.
Dani Pedrosa had a lonely race, as he finished in 3rd – exactly the same position he started in. Pedrosa originally began to break away with Marquez at the front, but dropped back to 3rd when Folger came through. He was under no pressure from the likes of Viñales, Rossi and Aleix Espargaro who were fighting for 4th behind him.
Hector Barbera was caught out at the very beginning with a jump start, but was later black flagged for not completing his ride through penalty.
Sam Lowes’ weekend was brought to an end with 18 laps to go, when he crashed out unhurt at turn 7. A few laps later, Andrea Iannone – who is having a far from impressive season, went down at t12 as he was battling with Jorge Lorenzo.
The factory Yamaha’s weekend improved dramatically, with Viñales working his way up from 11th to 4th and Rossi coming from 9th to 5th.
Marc Marquez’s victory left him at the top of the championship standings, with Dovizioso dropping back to 3rd.
- Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team – 40:59.525
- Jonas Folger, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 3.310
- Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team + 11.546
- Maverick Viñales, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP + 14.253
- Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP + 14.980
- Alvaro Bautista, Pull&Bear Aspar Team + 16.534
- Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini + 19.736
- Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team + 20.188
- Johann Zarco, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 21.138
- Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda + 24.210
