Marc Marquez dominates bruising German MotoGP
While the rest of the grid struggled to remain on their bikes at this notoriously tricky Sachsenring track, Marc Marquez enjoyed a dream afternoon.
Setting off from pole he was never challenged, crossing the line over six seconds clear for his seventh perfect weekend of 2025 having also won Saturday's sprint.
At the midway stage of the 22-race campaign Marquez leads brother Alex by 83 points in the riders' standings, with his Ducati factory teammate Bagnaia a yawning 147 off the lead.
"My confidence is super high now coming here with three wins in a row and now it's four," beamed Marquez.
"I have to be really concentrated for the second half of the season," he added.
His younger sibling was competing despite fracturing his left hand at the Dutch MotoGP a fortnight ago.
"It's unbelievable, thanks to the doctors and everyone that I'm here," he said after his 100th MotoGP start.
For Marquez this was his seventh race win of the year and fourth on the trot as he tightens his grip on a seventh MotoGP world title - and first since 2019 - to draw level with the legendary Valentino Rossi.
Attritional
Despite sunshine taking over from Saturday's rain, the race proved one of the most attritional in years with eight riders crashing and two unable to take part after coming a cropper on Saturday.
The last time only 10 riders completed a MotoGP was in Australia, 14 years ago.
Pole-sitter Marquez enjoyed an electric getaway from the front of the grid, in contrast to 24 hours earlier.
Then, a first turn mistake had dropped him down the pack, and it wasn't until his last lap overtake of Marco Bezzecchi that he wrapped up his 10th sprint out of 11.
On a dry track, Marquez quickly pulled clear of the chasing pack led by Fabio Di Giannantonio, who had set a new lap record in practice on Friday.
With Marquez set fair for another demolition job - he'd pulled almost two seconds clear by lap 10 of 30 - his main danger was maintaining focus and concentration around the ultra-demanding circuit with its short straights and tight bends in the former East Germany.
Others were not enjoying their afternoon at one of the toughest venues on the calendar quite so much - notably Pedro Acosta and Miguel Oliveira who both crashed out.
On lap 18 Di Giannantonio and Johann Zarco also hit the deck independently at turn one.
That left Bezzecchi's Aprilia chasing Marquez, a distant four-and-a-half seconds up the road.
But that situation only lasted until the following lap when Bezzecchi became the latest victim of turn one.
The DNF tally swelled even further with the exits of Lorenzo Savadori, Ai Ogura and former champion Joan Mir.
Two riders unable to line up on Sunday were KTM-Tech 3 duo Maverick Vinales, out with a fractured shoulder after a heavy fall in qualifying, and his appendicitics-hit teammate Enea Bastianini.
Also missing was Franco Morbidelli after his bone-crunching crash in Saturday's sprint.
The MotoGP season moves on to Czechia next Sunday where all eyes will be on defending champion Jorge Martin.
The luckless Spaniard has not finished a race this season after a series of heavy crashes, but has set his sights on Brno for his return to action.
© 2025 AFP
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