3 days ago
- Sport
- United News of India
Marquez reigns in Germany as podium contenders crash
Saxony(Germany) July 13 (UNI) Simply put, different class. On his 200th start, Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) moved into second place on the MotoGP victory tally charts – surpassing Legend Giacomo Agostini – in a display of perfection at the Liqui Moly Grand Prix of Germany. It's 69 wins now for the King of the Sachsenring, as Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP), on his 100th start, strung together an impressive ride to finish P2 while injured. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) bounced back with a podium finish in P3 in a battle that saw rostrum contenders crash out at the Sachsenring.
With the threat of wet weather forcing its way into playing a leading role diminishing towards go time, we strapped ourselves in for a dry German GP and as the lights went out, it was Marc Marquez who collected the holeshot as Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) made a blinder from P6 to grab an early P3. Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) slotted into P2, as Johann Zarco (CASTROL Honda LCR) slipped to P5 on the opening lap from the middle of the front row.
Di Giannantonio and Bezzecchi exchanged P2 on the opening lap before the former made a move stick at Turn 12, as Alex Marquez and Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) engaged battle too. Marc Marquez, meanwhile, was blissfully unaware of the fight unfolding behind him as he stretched his advantage to 0.7s at the end of Lap 3.
Acosta's Grand Prix then ended with a crash at Turn 2 from P5, so that was KTM's main hopes of the Sachsenring podium over. That promoted Bagnaia to P5, with Alex Marquez swarming all over the tailpipes of Bezzecchi for P3. 0.6s up the road in P2, Di Giannantonio was losing around a tenth a lap to Marc Marquez at this stage of the Grand Prix.
It was more than that for the next few laps though. The #93 was the only rider capable of lapping in the 1:20s on a consistent basis, he hadn't dropped into the 1:21 bracket, and the gap on Lap 8 of 30 was up to 1.7s. And by Lap 16, just over half race distance, Marc Marquez's lead was north of three seconds.
Di Giannantonio was under a second ahead of Bezzecchi, with Alex Marquez and then Bagnaia all operating at equal distance behind each other. But then, we lost our second place rider from the Grand Prix. Di Giannantonio tucked the front at Turn 1 on Lap 18, and Zarco was out of the race at the same corner – albeit a little further around – as two of the top six had premature ends to their German GPs.
That meant Alex Marquez was lifted to a podium position in P3, and the rider second in the championship chase had 1.2s to play with to Pecco in P4. But then, Turn 1 caught out our P2 rider again. Bezzecchi's impressive race was over in similar fashion to Di Giannantonio, so that meant it was Marc Marquez leading Alex Marquez by 5.9s, with Bagnaia now P3.
Turn 1 was really proving tricky. In the fight for the top 10, Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) took out the luckless Joan Mir (Honda HRC Castrol), and while the yellow flags were waving, Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia Racing) chucked it down the road at Turn 1 too.
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