Marquez buoyant for German MotoGP after Assen triumph

SACHSENRING: Championship leader Marc Marquez said he will use his victory in last week’s epic Assen race as motivation going into Sunday’s German MotoGP at Sachsenring.

The Repsol Honda rider finished atop the podium in Holland after an incredible race that saw the first 15 riders cross the line just 16.043 seconds apart.

It was the closest ever top-15 finish of all time and a timely boost for Spaniard Marquez.

The track at Sachsenring is the shortest on the calendar at 3.67km (2.28 miles) but it is also tight and twisty, so could also throw up a close finish.

What is sure is that Marquez and Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa have dominated the German track, a road based circuit in-andaround the city of Chemnitz, Eastern Germany.

They have won a staggering 14 times between them and stood together on the podium three times, in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

Marquez has taken eight consecutive wins across three classes at the German circuit where 10 of its 13 corners are left-handed, each success remarkably coming after starting from pole position. After kicking off in the 125cc category in 2010, the Spaniard went on to win twice in Moto2 (2011, 2012) and then five times in MotoGP (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017).

Pedrosa’s last MotoGP victory here came in 2012, having also won in 2007, 2010 and 2011.

“The victory we scored at Assen was important because it was a race where it was incredibly easy to make a mistake but instead we were able to increase our advantage in the championship,” Marquez said. “Now we go to a very different circuit where we’re normally very strong but every year is different.”

Marquez added: “Weather could play an important role, as we’ve seen in the past: if it’s rainy or mixed, everything will change very quickly and you must be ready.

“So we’ll see. We’ll go there and try to find our level and be strong from the start of the weekend. Then on Sunday we’ll try and fight for the podium again.”

Pedrosa admitted that the Sachsenring was “a track that I like”.

“In the second part of the race at Assen, we managed to lap at a better pace than we did during the rest of the weekend, so we’ll try and build on that at Sachsenring.”