MotoGP German GP: Martin dominates sprint from Bagnaia

Martin took his first sprint win of the season at the French GP and added a second to his tally in Germany, taking the chequered flag 2.4 seconds clear.

The Pramac Ducati rider took the lead on lap four with a daring double overtake and instantly opened a near-second gap to the chasing pack.

It moves him up to second in the championship, 21 points behind Bagnaia after the factory Ducati rider was second in the sprint.

Bagnaia couldn’t get to Turn 1 first from pole as the rocket KTM of Jack Miller powered ahead.

However, the reigning world champion carved back ahead into Turn 2 before the former team-mates exchanged overtakes through Turns 7 and 8.

Bagnaia got the upper hand in this scrap, before Martin came through on Miller into Turn 12 at the end of the opening tour.

At Turn 1 on lap two, Bagnaia ran wide and let Miller come back through, before getting back past the Australian two tours later at the same corner.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

As the lead group swelled to seven riders, Martin made a decisive move on lap four of 15 down the hill into Turn 12.

Nailing his drive through Turn 11, Martin moved to the inside of the circuit and took the lead away from Miller and Bagnaia, keeping a hold of the place despite running wide into Turn 12.

Martin immediately took out an 0.8s lead and continued to grow this over the rest of the race, taking the chequered flag 2.4s clear of Bagnaia.

Miller completed the podium, 0.8s adrift of Bagnaia, with Luca Marini on the VR46 Ducati fending off Pramac’s Johann Zarco on the run to the line for fourth.

KTM’s Brad Binder had been involved in that battle, but had to settle for sixth after Zarco forced him off track at Turn 11 with an aggressive overtake.

The incident was investigated by the stewards, but no further action was taken.

Marco Bezzecchi was seventh on his VR46 Ducati ahead of Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro to round out the final points paying positions down to ninth.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Enea Bastianini was 10th on his factory Ducati, while Marc Marquez suffered his worst ever MotoGP race finish at the Sachsenring.

Having won 11 grands prix in succession in his career in Germany and nine in a row in MotoGP, the Honda rider’s run looks unlikely to continue on Sunday.

Starting from seventh after three crashes in qualifying, Marquez briefly moved up to fifth in the early stages but could do nothing to stop his slide down to 11th at the chequered flag.

He headed Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo could only salvage 13th after he was forced to roll out of the throttle off the line when Aleix Espargaro forced Bastianini to cut across the front of the Frenchman.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales was a late faller, while Tech3’s Jonas Folger retired early on.

MotoGP German GP sprint race results

Cla	Rider		Bike	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Jorge Martin		Ducati	-
2	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	2.468	2.468	2.468
3	Jack Miller		KTM	3.287	3.287	0.819
4	Luca Marini		Ducati	5.487	5.487	2.200
5	Johann Zarco		Ducati	5.538	5.538	0.051
6	Brad Binder		KTM	6.289	6.289	0.751
7	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	6.956	6.956	0.667
8	Alex Marquez		Ducati	9.261	9.261	2.305
9	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	9.691	9.691	0.430
10	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	9.715	9.715	0.024
11	Marc Marquez		Honda	10.828	10.828	1.113
12	Fabio Di Giannantonio		Ducati	10.905	10.905	0.077
13	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	11.366	11.366	0.461
14	Augusto Fernandez		KTM	12.593	12.593	1.227
15	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	12.905	12.905	0.312
16	Miguel Oliveira		Aprilia	13.837	13.837	0.932
17	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	14.505	14.505	0.668
18	Raúl Fernández		Aprilia	28.959	28.959	14.454
	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia
	Jonas Folger		KTM
View full results