MotoGP: German Grand Prix – 10 From 10 For Marquez

Round 9 of the 2019 MotoGP Championship took place in the picturesque Saxony region of Germany.

Marc Marquez had taken his 10th pole position at the circuit in as many years, starting back in 2010 in the 125cc class. The Spaniard has an impressive record at the circuit, converting his previous 9 pole positions into 9 race wins. The nature of the circuit seems to suit the riding style of Marquez, with lots of long left hand corners (7 in a row) and being able to give the bike a lot of lean angle, helps get the bike around the long corners.

Qualifying saw Maverick Vinales beat fellow Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo into 3rd. The Frenchman partially dislocating his left shoulder after a wobble in 3rd practice, coming down the fast right hand corner in the penultimate turn. He would take part in the race but could anyone stop Marquez from converting his 10th pole in his 10th consecutive win?

MotoGP

Marquez had his front wheel lift off the line, Maverick Vinales got into the lead into turn 1 but the Repsol Honda rider let off the brakes and retook the lead going into turn 1. The Yamaha of Vinales got great drive down the fast right hand downhill corner at Waldmann’s. He would look around the outside of Marquez into turn 12 at Sachsen Kurve but it’s tough to pass the 7x World Champion around the outside. After the race Marquez revealed that he was “trying to take it easy to warm (up) the tyre”.

After the tyre was up to temperature, Marquez began to pull out a gap at the start of lap 4, Alex Rins on the Suzuki, had strong race pace all weekend – made a pass up to second on Vinales at Sachsen Kurve. Once the Suzuki rider got into second, he looked to be Marquez’s closest challenger.

Marc Marquez – “I began to save the tyre”

Lap 2 saw Fabio Quartararo slip off the bike at the Omega corner on lap 2, after he made a move past Danilo Petrucci for 5th. It is only his second crash on a MotoGP bike and his first in a race.

Marc Marquez grew the gap to 3 seconds by half race distance and then “I began to save the tyre” –  at mid-race distance, said Marquez. Tyre life had been tough on all riders throughout the weekend.

The crash that no one wants to have is a crash at Waldmann’s corner, that is what happened to Rins. The Spaniard pulled the gap down to 2.9 seconds to Marquez but was beginning to get caught by Vinales and Crutchlow. Through the fast downhill corner, Rins lost the front and as he slid along the gravel his bike barrel-rolled and destroyed itself.

Marquez On A Mission

This left Marquez off the hook to take his 5th win of the season, his 10th win at Sachsenring in as many years. The win makes him the second rider (after Valentino Rossi’s win at Mugello from 2002 – 08) to win 7 consecutive races at the same circuit in the MotoGP class.

After Rins crashed out of the race, Maverick Vinales moved up to second and held off a determined Cal Crutchlow. The LCR Honda rider suffering an off throttle slide on the penultimate lap at turn 10 while chasing the Yamaha man, appearing to have severe tyre problems. He backed off to take a safe third place and his first podium since Round 1 – at Losail. Vinales moved ahead of his team-mate Rossi into 5th in the championship after finishing second.

Danillo Petrucci gained on his team-mate for second in the championship after claiming 4th place and holding off Dovizioso in 5th, Miller (6th) and the Suzuki of Joan Mir (7th). The quartet were embroiled in an epic scrap in the final stages of the race. Dovizioso and Petrucci changing places at turn 1 and the penultimate corner at Sachsen Kurve in the final few laps.

Valentino Rossi has another disastrous weekend, after starting 11th on the grid. The Italian legend could only manage 8th ahead of his fellow Italian Franco Morbidelli and Repsol Honda stand-in rider Stefan Bradl. The German – home favourite scored a 10th place, which is a higher position than what regular rider Jorge Lorenzo has managed this season.

Moto2

Alex Marquez would start from pole position for the first time in 2019 after a weekend filled with incidents in practice. When the lights went out Marquez dropped back to 5th at the exit of turn 1 behind Iker Lecuona, Marcel Shrotter, Luca Marini and his team-mate Xavi Vierge.

Schrotter sent his home fans wild with a pass into the lead, into turn 1 at the start of lap 2. Although, he ran wide and dropped into second at turn 10. As Schrotter, Vierge and Marquez swapped places, Lecuona and Marini pulled a small gap but this was quickly reduced as Marquez got into third. Lap 4 saw Marquez move into second ahead of Marini into the penultimate – Sachsen Kurve – after the fast downhill right hander.

The Spaniard made his move on Lecuona into the tight turn one hairpin at the start of lap 8. Lecuona, kept on the wheel of Marquez and on lap 10, turned the bike tight on the long Omega corner and slipped passed his fellow Spaniard. Marquez wouldn’t stay second for long, making a move on the KTM rider into Sachsen Kurve later in the lap. This would be the last pass for the lead. As others made small mistakes behind Marquez, the Marc VDS rider held his cool and set consistent laps to stay in front. He pulled a gap of 3.2 seconds with 5 laps remaining, Marquez showed great speed late in the race – setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 17.

4 Wins From 5

Marquez would take the win by 1.2 seconds after easing off on the final laps. His fourth win in five races sees the Alex Marquez retake the championship lead by 8 points ahead of Tom Luthi. After his older brother’s win in the MotoGP class, it means that three times both have won on the same day in 2019. Le Mans and Catalunya being the other two races.

Further back, the Red Bull KTM rider of Brad Binder worked his way from 17th on the grid – after a crash in qualifying – into 2nd. The South African making aggressive passes on his fellow riders into turn 1 as he worked his way up the order. He was embroiled in an epic battle on track with Schrotter and Lecuona in the final 10 laps. Each lap saw the three making moves anywhere they could find space and the order changing in a blink of an eye. Evetually, Binder would hold off the chasing pair to take his first podium of the season in second ahead of home hero Marcel Schrotter. Lecuona pushed too hard and lost the front into the final turn on the last lap, punching the ground in frustration. The 19 year old showing the talent many people believe he has.

Tom Luthi had a disastrous weekend, starting from 12th spot on the grid, he worked his way into the top 6. He benefited from Lecuona’s crash to pick up 5th place. The Swiss rider took the long lap penalty after running deep into turn 1 early in the race and knocking Vierge off and out of the race.

Moto3

The Moto3 class was once again filled with hard racing with lots of overtakes. Ayumi Sasaki took his first ever pole position on the Saturday ahead of his fellow Japanese rider Kaito Toba. It marked the first time since the South African Grand Prix at Phakisa Freeway in 2001 that two Japanese riders started from the top two positions on the grid. Youichi Ui qualified ahead Noburu Ueda. Championship leader Aron Canet started the race from 22 after struggling for much pf the weekend.

There was disaster early on as Lorenzo Lopez lost the rear end and was sent over the handlebars coming out of the Omega Curve, the luckless Gabriel Rodrigo had nowhere to go and clipped the stricken Estrella Galicia Honda.

The 24 lap race was in full flow and at many times it looked as though the Leopard Honda of Marcos Ramirez would make a break at the head of the field. The Spaniard looked in command but his team mate Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Scotsman – John McPhee both edged him back and in doing so brought the pack of riders behind them to the front of the field.

Rider of the day came from Aron Canet, in the last 7 laps made his way through the field after being on the fringes of the points for most of the race. On the final lap of the race, Canet was in the lead coming down the hill into the penultimate turn. Dalla Porta made the move on his championship rival moving into the lead with one corner to go. Ramirez moved into second but at the chequered flag, pushing Canet back to third.

8 Winners From 9 Races In 2019

Dalla Porta held on to pick up his first win of the season. In doing so becomes the eighth different race winner in nine races. Ramirez finished 2nd ahead of Canet – who completed the podium.

Romano Fenati picked up his best result of the season in 4th ahead of Raul Fernandez and John McPhee, his 6th spot moved him into 6th in the standings. Lorenzo Dalla Porta’s win takes him to the top of the championship, 2 points ahead of Aron Canet.

MotoE

The first ever Enel MotoE World Cup took place as the first race of the day. There was a lot of curiosity with the world watching with 7 laps ahead. The riders taking part ranged from young riders, ex Grand Prix racers and a 46 year old in 9x MotoGP winner Sete Gibernau.

Finnish rider Niki Tuuli took the first ever pole position on the Saturday, there was no warm up lap, so as the lights went MotoE was off to it’s first ever start. Aprilia MotoGP test rider Bradley Smith took the lead early on from the 3rd row of the grid, ahead of Hector Garzo and 2008 125cc World Champion – Mike Di Meglio. The Frenchman took the lead of the race into turn 1 at the start of lap 2, leading a group of 7 riders.

The following laps saw the top 3 change at nearly ever corner, Niki Tuuli, Smith and Di Meglio were swapping paint as the laps ticked off, Garzo joined the top 3 in the fight for the podium. Tuuli began to pull out a gap on lap 5 and in doing so left Di Meglio, Smith and Garzo to fight it out for the final podium spots. Former Aprilia World Superbike rider Lorenzo Savadori holds the unwanted record of becoming the first rider to crash out of a MotoE race. The Italian tagged the back of the 2011 – 125cc World Champion Nicolas Terol into the fast left uphill turn 9. The incident brought out the red flagged as the bike punctured the air fence and the result was called.

History Has Been Made

Race race result would be taken back to a full completed lap, results called at the end of lap 5. Niki Tuuli became the first ever MotoE race winner ahead of Bradley Smith – who took his first podium since the San Marino Grand Prix in 2015 when he finished 2nd behind Marc Marquez in MotoGP. The podium makes him the first rider to take a podium in 125cc/Moto3, Moto2, MotoGP and MotoE championship. Frenchman Di Meglio took his first Grand Prix podium in nearly 10 years, he finish 2nd in the Portugese – 250cc race at Estori. Hector Gazo narrowly missed out on the podium. Sete Gibernau scored a well earned top 10 after his first race in a decade – Laguna Seca in 2009. He claimed 9th place.

There have been many critics of the MotoE championship, mainly down to a lack of noise. The race would surely silence many of those critics, there was a lot of close racing, plenty of overtakes and riders pushing their bikes to the limit. This showed that the championship has a promising future and with the 160bhp bikes providing close and exciting racing, the criticisms of the championship will fade away.

One Hand On the Trophy?

Marc Marquez heads into the summer break with a 58 point advantage at the top of the championship, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso. The Repsol Honda rider, at the halfway stage of the season now has one hand on his 8th championship (6th in the MotoGP class).

Not only has Marquez picked up 5 wins in 2019, he has scored three 2nd place finishes, the only blot in his copybook was the Circuit of the Americas when he crashed from the race lead. Not only is Marquez incredibly fast but with the consistency he has shown this season, it means that on a bad day for Marquez, he is still picking up very strong points. This is a negative that the Spaniard has turned to a serious strength in recent years.

It will be very difficult for Dovizioso and Ducati to claw back that disadvantage in the reaming rounds, it would need a miracle or some bad luck on Marquez’s part for the Italian of Dovizioso to put himself back into the championship fight. At the moment, he must look over his shoulder as his team-mate of Petrucci is only 6 points further behind.

The next round of the championship will be in 4 weeks time on the 2nd-4th of August at the Czech Grand Prix at Brno, Dovizioso won at the circuit in 2018, can he and Ducati fight back?