Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) won a brilliant victory in today’s German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring, resisting a determined charge from Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) during the final stages. Marquez’s second MotoGP win puts the 20-year-old rookie back into the World Championship lead, two points ahead of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) who sat out the race following a heavy tumble yesterday. Local hero Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) entertained the huge German crowd by leading the early laps and equalling his best premier-class result with a fourth-place finish.

Marquez started from pole position for the third time this year but was content to ease into the race at a track which is notorious for catching out riders when the tyres aren’t fully up to their optimum operating temperature. He was fourth for the first two laps, while Bradl led. On lap three he started pushing forward, moving into third place and then into second two laps later. The following lap, lap six, he grabbed the lead from Bradl, cutting inside the German at the final turn, repeating the move he had put on Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) the previous lap.

Once ahead, Marquez immediately opened a gap of four tenths and by lap 15, half distance, he was 2.3 seconds ahead of Crutchlow who had also moved passed Rossi. Marquez was riding superbly and managing his advantage, which hovered just above the two-second mark for several laps. But then in the last five laps Crutchlow started nibbling away at the gap, taking a tenth here and a tenth there. The final few laps were full of tension as the Briton edged closer still, until halfway through the final lap he was just 1.3 seconds behind. Of course, Marquez had managed the gap to perfection and wheelied across the finish line 1.559 seconds in front.

The reigning Moto2 World Champion’s second victory in the elite class puts him two points ahead of Pedrosa as the 2013 campaign moves towards its halfway point at Laguna Seca next weekend. Marquez’s 28th career GP victory was also his fourth in a row at the ultra-challenging Sachsenring: he won here on a 125 in 2010, on a Moto2 bike in 2011 and 2012 and now on a MotoGP machine.

Pedrosa was ruled out of the race after a nasty highside at the first turn during yesterday morning’s FP3 practice session. The 27-year-old was thrown high from his machine and landed heavily on his left shoulder. The impact left him with a partially fractured left collarbone and other complications, including dizziness and low blood pressure. After undergoing checks at the trackside medical facilities he was taken by helicopter to Chemnitz hospital for further examinations. The former 125 and 250 World Champion was cleared to take part in this morning’s warm-up session but shortly before the outing his blood pressure dropped once again and he began to feel dizzy once more, so the MotoGP medical staff decided he wasn’t fit to start the race.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) – the other main man in the championship battle – also missed today’s race following a heavy tumble on Friday afternoon which aggravated the left collarbone he broke at Assen. Lorenzo had the injury plated so he could ride in the Dutch TT but Friday’s accident bent the metalwork fixing the bone, necessitating further surgery.

Former Moto2 World Champion Bradl fought hard to score his first MotoGP podium but it wasn’t quite to be. Boosted by massive home-crowd support, the 23-year-old led the first five laps of the 30 lap race but once he was passed by the others he knew he lacked corner speed in the second sector, so he had to be happy with fourth place behind nine-time World Champion Rossi.

Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V) rode a strong first few laps, coming through from the third row of the grid to fourth place on lap three, just behind Marquez. However, the Spaniard wasn’t quite able to maintain his impressive progress due to some traction issues in the faster part of the track and slipped back to fifth place, which he held from lap four all the way to the finish.

Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) had a disappointing day at the Sachsenring, sliding off without injury with three laps remaining.



Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: race winner

“I am very happy with this victory. It was important to have a good race under the circumstances this weekend, without Dani and Jorge on track. I wish them a speedy recovery, because winning is important but without them the triumph isn’t quite the same. Even so, it is a good result, since we have taken the maximum points available and ridden a completely different race to those that we’ve had before. We led the race and maintained the gap to second place. It was good experience, although I perhaps prefer races that are a little more of a battle! We should be happy, and we have also held up well physically at a circuit where there is no time to rest on the bike. We’ll see how it goes in Laguna Seca, which will be a hard GP for me because I’ve never ridden there. We’ll take it step by step and remain calm whilst we get up to speed.”

Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP: 4th

“I think it was a good weekend for us even if we missed the chance to achieve the podium. Actually I have done a good start and I was capable to lead the race for some laps but, when the guys passed me, I could see that they had more corner speed especially in section 2 which was the weak point for us. In the rest of the circuit we have been very competitive and very fast so we are pretty satisfied about our job. Okay… I missed the chance to reward my Team and my crowd with a podium finish but we do not give up and we will keep on fighting in Laguna. A special thanks to my fans… I could feel their huge support these days and it was something special to me.”

Alvaro Bautista, Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 5th

“We finished in fifth place which at the end of the day is not a great result but after a great start I just wasn’t able to keep in touch with the riders at the front. We had some traction problems in the second sector, which is where I was losing a lot of time and I could only just hold the gap in the other sectors. I tried to get closer but I couldn’t manage it and fifth place is still a positive result for us after the Dutch race because it’s a step forward. Now I am sure we can make more progress at Laguna with the help of the team, who are doing a great job.”

Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini: DNF

“My confidence is on the floor right now! Four crashes in a weekend is four too many and the one in the race was particularly stupid. I was letting the front three lap me and lost concentration going into Turn One and ended up crashing. I am really sorry to the team, who are doing so much to help me.”

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: Did not start

“This morning I had my check up in the medical centre and I felt okay. My shoulder was painful but otherwise I felt fine. The doctors declared me fit to take part in warm-up. Then shortly before the session I began to feel dizzy again and my blood pressure dropped. The doctors came to see me in my truck and we decided I shouldn’t take part in the session. I returned to my motorhome to rest and still felt dizzy and sick. The doctors arrived at my motorhome and informed me that they did not consider I was okay to race and would therefore declare me unfit.”

Event results - Round 8 - Race 1

1 Marc Marquez 41m14.653s ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Cal Crutchlow 1.559 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
3 Valentino Rossi 9.620 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Stefan Bradl 13.992 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
5 Alvaro Bautista 21.775 SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
6 Bradley Smith 25.080 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
7 Andrea Dovizioso 30.027 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
8 Aleix Espargaro 30.324 ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
9 Nicky Hayden 45.355 USA DUCATI Ducati Team
10 Michele Pirro 47.142 ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing
11 Hector Barbera 47.824 SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
12 Randy De Puniet 48.523 FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
13 Colin Edwards 54.428 USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
14 Danilo Petrucci 1'00.323 ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
15 Claudio Corti 1'05.530 ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
16 Michael Laverty 1'09.153 WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
17 Hiroshi Aoyama 1'15.601 JPN FTR Avintia Blusens
18 Karel Abraham 1'19.683 CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing
19 Lukas Pesek 1 lap CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project
20 Bryan Staring DNF AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
21 Yonny Hernandez DNF COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport


Championship standings

1 Marc Marquez 138 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Dani Pedrosa 136 pts SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Jorge Lorenzo 127 pts SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Cal Crutchlow 107 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
5 Valentino Rossi 101 pts ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
6 Andrea Dovizioso 74 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
7 Stefan Bradl 64 pts GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
8 Alvaro Bautista 58 pts SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
9 Nicky Hayden 57 pts USA DUCATI Ducati Team
10 Aleix Espargaro 52 pts ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
11 Bradley Smith 51 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
12 Michele Pirro 36 pts ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing
13 Andrea Iannone 24 pts ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing
14 Randy De Puniet 19 pts FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
15 Hector Barbera 18 pts SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
16 Danilo Petrucci 15 pts ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
17 Colin Edwards 13 pts USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
18 Ben Spies 9 pts USA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing
19 Yonny Hernandez 6 pts COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
20 Claudio Corti 5 pts ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
21 Michael Laverty 3 pts WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
22 Karel Abraham 3 pts CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing
23 Bryan Staring 2 pts AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
24 Javier del Amor 1 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
25 Hiroshi Aoyama 1 pts JPN FTR Avintia Blusens
26 Lukas Pesek 0 pts CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project
27 Ivan Silva 0 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
28 Blake Young 0 pts USA APRILIA Attack Performance

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