Marquez continues his victory march
MOTOGP SACHSENRING (D) JULY 15 ROUND 9/19
It seems Marc Marquez can do no wrong right now. The reigning Motogp champion went into last weekend’s Sachsenring round as undisputed favourite, owing to his perfect premier class record around the German track. He duly delivered with his fifth victory in nine 2018 races.
The timing of the win is significant. Marquez heads into the short three-week summer break with 46 points in hand over nearest rival Valentino Rossi, who provided the closest opposition to the Honda rider but was never really in the hunt to end his and Yamaha’s year-long losing streak.
Although the gap between the two at the finish was similar to the winning margin Marquez enjoyed two weeks prior in Assen, this was a very different sort of race to the thrill-a-minute Dutch TT. Tyre preservation was key, and this was a job made that much harder by the unusually warm weather that prevailed at the normally cold and rainy Sachsenring.
Marquez remarked after bagging pole position on Saturday by a mere 0.025 seconds from Pramac Ducati man Danilo Petrucci that the sunny conditions had eroded his traditional advantage. He seemed keen to emphasise that his focus would be on points, not winning at all costs.
But, while Jorge Lorenzo was able to repeat his now-customary flying start from third on the grid to lead the first part of the race, it soon became apparent that the best the Ducati rider could hope for would be second behind the indomitable Marquez.
Having slipped to third behind Lorenzo and Petrucci on the opening tour, Marquez was back up to second by the end of lap five and was soon stalking Lorenzo, picking the right time to make his move – which didn’t come until the end of the 13th lap of 30.
Rossi, who climbed from his grid slot of sixth to fourth to sit behind Marquez early on, was able to scythe his way past Petrucci and then challenge Lorenzo for the runnerup spot, completing the move on lap 16.
Shortly after that, Rossi raised hopes of a late bid for glory by setting the fastest lap of the race. But Marquez responded almost immediately, escaping his old nemesis to the tune of 2.2s by the time of the chequered flag.
All the while, Lorenzo was struggling with his rear tyre and dropping back. He fell prey to Petrucci and Maverick Vinales on the same lap and then gave away a further position to the year-old Nieto Ducati of Alvaro Bautista, who proved the surprise of the weekend.
Vinales finally got the better of Petrucci in the fight for the bottom step of the podium, although Petrucci felt that the time he’d lost trying to clear Ducati stablemate Lorenzo ultimately cost him any chance of a top-three finish.
Bautista’s fifth place marked his best Motogp result since last year’s Italian Grand Prix. But the 33-year-old veteran is facing an uncertain future – and could well be added to a long list of names set to depart the grid come 2019.
Behind Lorenzo, it was something of a surprise to see Andrea Dovizioso fail to feature in the lead battle at all and trail home a lowly seventh. While the Sachsenring has never been a happy hunting ground for Ducati, the fact that Dovizioso was only the marque’s fourth-best representative was clearly a source of major disappointment for a rider whose title hopes look to be rapidly receding.
Completing the top 10 were Honda’s
Dani Pedrosa – who announced his upcoming retirement from Motogp during an emotional press conference on Thursday – Johann Zarco on the Tech3 Yamaha and Bradley Smith, who matched his best result aboard a KTM.
For team-mate Pol Espargaro, it was a hero-to-zero kind of day. The Spaniard put KTM on top of an official session for the first time ever when he was quickest in warm-up on Sunday morning, but he caused a four-way melee on the opening lap of the race that involved Suzuki riders Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone as well as the second Pramac bike of Jack Miller.
Espargaro escaped sanction for that particular moment of madness, but drew the ire of his competitors. Miller pulled no punches, labelling Espargaro an “idiot” for his overambitious move around the outside of Turn 2 and subsequent inside lunge at Turn 3.
Elder brother Aleix didn’t even get as far as the start, having to pull out after suffering a big crash in warm-up in which he hurt his ribs. He became the third non-starter after Franco Morbidelli, still unfit after breaking his hand at
Assen, and KTM wildcard Mika Kallio, who damaged his right knee in a major shunt of his own on Friday.
Standing in for Morbidelli was home hero Stefan Bradl, out of Motogp since the end of 2016 but now a Honda test rider. He just missed out on a point in 16th place.