Calm after the storm! An action-packed first half of the MotoGP sprint at Sachsenring decided Martín’s victory

Probably the toughest sprint of the season in terms of physical demands awaited the royal category riders. Saturday’s seventh short race took place on the winding and technical Sachsenring, dominated by left-hand turns and long stretches. These aspects potentially offered an even battle between the dominant Ducati and its rivals. However, despite all the doubts, the Italian factory prevailed, thanks to Jorge Martín. The Spaniard triumphed ahead of championship leader and stablemate Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller on a KTM machine.

Qualifying in the morning was dramatic. The participants in the second part of the race were struggling with a drying track, which offered more and more room for acceleration every minute. In the end, the reigning World Champion Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia took the best advantage of the conditions and recorded his fourth pole position of the season. However, his position was only confirmed by the erased but faster times of fellow Ducati riders Jorge Martín and Marco Bezzecchi.

Luca Marini on the Ducati and Jack Miller on the KTM joined Bagnaia on the front row. It was the Australian who once again made an excellent start, tipping his bike into the first corner first. However, similarly to Mugello a week ago, Bagnaia returned to the lead in the very next corner.

However, compared to the last sprint, Bagnaia was unable to pull away from the rest of the field. The Italian complicated the situation significantly on the second lap when he failed to judge the ideal braking point heading into the circuit’s opening corner. This mistake allowed Miller to move back into first place. The constant changes in the lead positions created an extremely tight group of five drivers. As a result, the first half of the sprint was characterised by a relentless battle for the win.

In these moments Martín managed to take the lead with a spectacular overtaking manoeuvre into the penultimate corner. Although Miller visibly had the pace to keep up with the powerful Ducati machines, he eventually had to concede defeat to Martín and Bagnai. The pair pulled away from the rest of the field exactly halfway through the 15-lap race. The time gaps between the leading riders gradually began to grow to over one second.

The one who was clearly struggling was Marc Márquez, the German Grand Prix winner at the Sachsenring. The 30-year-old Spaniard was marred by numerous crashes over the duration of the race weekend, which almost certainly affected his pace during the sprint. Although Márquez hovered around the top five at the start, his speed gradually began to drop and he eventually dropped out of the top ten.

In the second half of Saturday’s short race, the attention of spectators and broadcast directors shifted to the group battling for fourth place. Marini kept Brad Binder on the KTM behind him as long as he could.

Johann Zarco was watching the whole situation, and on the last lap he pulled off a cheeky stunt when he passed Binder on an extremely fast right-hander into the famous waterfall. Although the South African went into the breakaway zone, the race directorate judged the manoeuvre to be clean.

Firstly, the home rider Jonas Folger on the satellite ktm and the factory Aprilia’s Maverick Viñales withdrew from the race after crashing in the first corner.

Martín’s margin to cross the finish line of the sprint was almost two and a half seconds over Bagnaia, who maintained his 21-point lead at the head of the championship. The KTM riders were sandwiched between the once again convincingly fast Ducati riders, whose machines took seven positions in the top 10. The final points position was saved for Aprilia at the last moment by Aleix Espargaró.

MotoGP German Grand Prix sprint results (15 laps = 55.065 km; top 10 only):

1. Jorge Martín (Spa., Ducati) 20::21.871
2. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) +2.468
3. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) +3.287
4. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) +5.487
5. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) +5.538
6. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) +6.289
7. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) +6.956
8. Álex Márquez (Span., Ducati) +9.261
9. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) +9.691
10. Enea Bastianini (Ita., Ducati) +9.715

2023 MotoGP rider standings (top 10 only):

1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 140
2. Jorge Martín (Spa., Ducati) 119
3. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) 113
4. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) 96
5. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) 93
6. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) 78
7. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) 69
8. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) 55
9. Fabio Quartararo (Fra., Yamaha) 54
10. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) 53

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