Martin buckles as Bagnaia advances

With two laps to go of the 30-lap German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring, Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Ducati) was on track to double his points lead over reigning champ Pecco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati). He increased his lead by five points with a victory from pole in the Sprint the day before and looked in control of the grand prix with six tenths in hand with two to go.

Even Bagnaia admitted he had nothing left for his title rival in the final stages except to increase the pressure, admitting later “in the last two or three laps I saw that he was making some mistakes”. But when the Prima Pramac rider braked for Turn 1 for the penultimate time, he tucked the front, crashed out of the lead and handed Bagnaia not only the race victory, but a 10-point championship lead.

Other than that defining moment, Martin put together a near faultless race. From pole he grabbed the holeshot from fellow front-row starter Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing Aprilia) and Bagnaia, with Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac Ducati) close behind. Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati), who has never lost a race at the German circuit, started from 13th on the grid and was through the first turn up four places in ninth.

It took Bagnaia just two laps to muscle his way into the lead, passing Oliveira for second and Martin for the lead in the final turn in successive laps, but while he led for the next five, a determined Martin caught and passed the factory Ducati man in the first turn of lap seven.

The strongest showing we’ve seen all year from Morbidelli had the Italian lapping quicker than his VR46 Academy sparring partner, he relegated the world champ to third place two laps later and had put almost a second between himself and Bagnaia by lap 12. Behind him, Alex Marquez looked like he was also planning a move on the Italian, with Marc Marquez now up to sixth and looking for a way through on Oliveira’s Aprilia.

It was the halfway point of the race when Bagnaia’s momentum shifted. He was four tenths quicker than Martin on lap 14 and had dragged himself back onto Morbidelli’s rear wheel. He found a way through at Turn 12 the next time around, but Martin was 1.1 seconds up the road and in consistent form.

Marc Marquez, likewise, found a way through Oliveira to sit fifth, but was mired behind the GP24 of Morbidelli for the next seven laps, his podium hopes fading as the laps wore on.

A mistake by Morbidelli opened a gap for Marquez, who took it, but as the Italian cut back there was contact between the two; Marc headbutted and broke his screen in the incident, briefly lost fifth to Enea Bastianini (Lenovo Ducati), lucky even to stay on his GP23. Marc later said the incident caused something to click in his head, he pushed his way back through on Bastianini, found a way through on Morbidelli on lap 25, but was 2.5 seconds down on brother Alex in third with just five laps to go.

With Martin still in control at the front and Bagnaia still not close enough to trouble the Spaniard, all eyes were on what Marc’s circuit dominance could inflict on the gap to the final podium place.

Having only been declared fit ahead of the Sprint thanks to a fractured finger and heavily bruised ribs sustained during practice, not least the added discomfort caused by his airbag deploying after the contact with Morbidelli, the fact that Marquez could lap half a second a lap quicker than his brother for the final five laps to even get himself on Alex’s rear wheel was nothing short of remarkable. But when Martin crashed out with two to go, and Marc did indeed find a way passed Alex for what was now a second-place finish, even he admitted he and the team thought a podium wasn’t possible.

Bastianini relegated Morbidelli to fifth in the closing stages, Oliveira ended up the race a lonely sixth place, while rookie Pedro Acosta (GasGas Tech3) won the battle for seventh from Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati), Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) and front-row starter Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Racing Aprilia). Aussie Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) started 16th, crossed the line 13th, while Aussie WorldSBK regular Remy Gardner (Monster Yamaha) who was deputising for Alex Rins, qualified 22nd and finished 20th.

Bagnaia crossed the line 3.8 seconds clear to notch up his fourth consecutive GP win and become Ducati’s most successful rider of all time, surpassing Casey Stoner’s record of 23 wins. It was a victory made extra special since he’d never celebrated a win at the German circuit before. Marc and Alex became the first siblings to share a grand prix podium since 1997 and it was the sixth successive all-Ducati rostrum.

After nine rounds, Nagnaia moves 10 points clear of Martin with 222 points to Martin’s 212. Marc Marquez is a further 46 points adrift on 166.   

The series now heads to Britain for Round 10 on the 4 August.