Marc Marquez took his 8th victory in 8 years at the Sachsenring today, but it wasn’t as easy as it looked for the Spaniard as he had home hero Jonas Folger on his tail for the majority of the race.
He crossed the line with a three second lead on the German, but throughout the race the gap was as little as 0.2 seconds.
Marquez: “Honestly, it was a very difficult race, I knew before the weekend this was a circuit where I needed to attack and my target was 25 points. Before the race everything was under control and I had the right tyres, and I thought my teammate would be the main rival.”
“Then at the start I was just trying to concentrate and then Jonas passed me, I was thinking it was good to have another rider between me and the others but then on the pitboard it was +0.1, +0.1… I started thinking ‘ok, what are you doing here?!’ then I realised he was going to be there to the end. I was pushing myself, I’m happy. It’s amazing how before I was 37 points down! Everything is very tight and it’s almost starting from zero. We’ll try. Also, something special I promised to myself was that after Hayden’s accident, my first win would be for him and his family so this is for them.”
Marquez now leads the championship by 5 points from Movistar Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) is hot on Viñales’ heels, with only one point separating the two as we head into the summer break.
