Round 9: German MotoGP™ – Race: Marquez completes dominant weekend with a sixth successive win at Sachsenring

Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez signed off a dominant weekend at Sachsenring by winning today’s German Grand Prix ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa, the two-time MotoGP™ World Champion extending his run of success at the German circuit to six successive victories.

Starting on pole position, Marquez lost out to Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo at the start of the race and held second place for the first few laps, before passing Lorenzo on lap five and streaking away for his second win of the year. Underlining his scintillating pace at Sachsenring, Marquez set a new Circuit Lap Record of 1’21.530 on lap 10 and crossed the finish line in a race time of 41’01.087 – the shortest ever overall race time at Sachsenring, beating the old mark by over eleven seconds. On the other Repsol Honda Team RC213V, Pedrosa took a solid second place finishing 2.226 seconds behind Marquez, while Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi took the final podium place a further three seconds behind. Marquez and Pedrosa both selected the combination of the hard compound front slick and the medium compound rear tyre for the German Grand Prix, while Rossi used the asymmetric front slick in combination with the medium compound rear on his way to third place.

A warm change today resulted in track temperatures reaching their highest level of the weekend. A peak track temperature of 44°C was recorded just before the start of the race and resulted in some riders altering their original race tyre choice. In a rare occurrence, three different front slick options featured in the race with the asymmetric, medium and hard front slicks all being utilised in the German Grand Prix. The asymmetric front slick was by far the most popular choice with nineteen of the twenty-five starters choosing this option, while four riders selected the medium front slick and just two riders – Marquez and Pedrosa – opting for the hard front slick. Rear tyre choice for the race saw a more even split across the field, with fourteen riders selecting the medium compound rear and the remaining eleven riders selecting the soft compound rear slick.

Third place for Rossi means his championship lead over teammate Lorenzo, who sits in second place grows to thirteen points at the halfway point of the season. Meanwhile, Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone’s fifth place finish in the German Grand Prix ensures he holds onto third place in the standings, 48 points behind Lorenzo.

“The rise in track temperatures today resulted in some late changes on the grid in terms of front tyre choice but overall, all of our slick options performed very well during the race. We saw very few incidents in the race and the pace was extremely quick with a new Circuit Record Lap and overall race time record adding to the Circuit Best lap record we saw yesterday so I am really pleased with how our tyre allocation performed at this demanding track. Congratulations to Marc for yet another victory at Sachsenring and also to Repsol Honda on a commanding 1-2 result. It may be four weeks until the next MotoGP race at Indianapolis but it will be a very busy period for Bridgestone Motorsport as we support teams in a MotoGP test at Misano next week, while also aiming for our tenth consecutive victory as a tyre supplier at the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race which takes place on July 26.”

“With the medium front tyre I felt slightly better this weekend, but I decided to use the hard front tyre for the race to help me in the final laps, but from the beginning of the race I felt good on the bike. This weekend we made a really good job so I’m happy to get this win and it’s a good result before we go on holiday. However, we still have to work hard so that we are even stronger in the second half of the season.”