Marc Marquez confirmed his position as the Sachsenring king with another dominant performance on Sunday at the German Grand Prix. He made his intentions very clear on Friday, finishing just 0.074 behind Fabio Quatararo in FP1 and the finishing on top of the time sheets for the rest of the timed sessions. He was a whole 2 tenths of a second ahead in Qualifying and seized the lead in Turn 1 of the race with an audacious outside pass on what were quite cold tyres. From then he controlled the race and saw off all challengers, cruising to a nearly 5 second win over Maverick Vinales and an impressive Cal Crutchlow, seeing his first podium for quite a while. The first Ducati home was Petrucci, taking valuable points from Dovizioso again, in 4th place with Dovi in 5th. Both the Ducatis were over 16 seconds back at the flag. Joan Mir took a fine 7th just behind Jack Miller, Mir having flirted with a possible podium before his tyres cried enough late in the race. Rossi? Well, he was in 8th place, 19 seconds behind Marquez. His lowly placing and the Vinales podium sees him slip behind his team-mate in the championship standings with Marquez 58 points clear at the top followed by Dovi, Petrucci and Rins. Rossi is now over 100 points behind and the prospect of a 10th world title is just a pipe dream. And Rins? Well, another unforced error from the Suzuki rider will not go down well with team management, especially since the next few tracks after the summer break will definitely suit the Ducatis.
And Marquez? His record at the German round is perfect. 10 pole positions and 10 wins. 125cc class in 2010. Moto2 in 2011 and 12 and MotoGp from 2013 to 2019.
As noted, the circus now takes a three week break before it resumes at Brno. Ducati will be looking forward to that as the layout suits their bikes better, but they will know that Marquez has already won on “Ducati” tracks so far this year and that they no longer have the horsepower advantage they have enjoyed for the last few seasons. Watching their riders trying to get their bikes to stop and turn at the Sachsenring was pretty worrying.
Dear me, no telecasts for the next three weekends, what will I do? Go riding, I guess!