Sachsenring MotoGP: Honda's Marc Marquez wins bizarre race

A rain shower as the riders headed to the grid meant everyone expected to start on wets, but the track dried rapidly.

Third-place starter Stefan Bradl and a handful of backmarkers switched back to slicks before the formation lap, while everyone else immediately realised they had to and dived for the pits to change bikes rather than lining up on the grid.

That led to the surreal sight of Bradl's LCR Honda alone in the top half of the start straight, with a massive gap back to Hiroshi Aoyama in the 16th place slot, while 14 of the 23 riders - including all the works riders - crowded five abreast into the narrow pit exit.

Bradl therefore led at the end of the first lap by three seconds over a second-place battle between Michael Laverty, Danilo Petrucci and Hiroshi Aoyama, with Marquez 10th and the first of the pitlane starters.

Marquez rapidly tore through the field, taking Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa with him, and by lap six they were passing Bradl for the lead.

Pedrosa clung on behind Marquez for the first two thirds of the race, but then Marquez managed to get the gap above a second for the first time, and was untroubled thereafter.

The Yamahas took longer to make it through the pack, with Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi eventually reaching distant third and fourth places.

Andrea Iannone was the top Ducati in fifth for Pramac, ahead of the Espargaro brothers, as works Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow ended up eighth and 10th after huge battles with the Espargaros and Scott Redding.

Of the early stars, Aoyama fell back to 12th, while the plucky Petrucci - who gave the works riders the hardest fight - at least salvaged a point in 15th.

Bradl had only swapped for dry tyres on what was otherwise a wet set-up bike, and had terrible race pace as the grand prix progressed. The early leader and home hero tumbled all the way back to 16th.

Despite the tricky conditions, Laverty was the only man to crash out.

Bradley Smith had his fifth fall of the weekend, but the Briton recovered to 19th.

Results - 30 laps                                     
                                                      
Pos Rider             Bike                    Time/Gap
 1. Marc Marquez      Honda                 41m47.664s
 2. Dani Pedrosa      Honda                    +1.466s
 3. Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                  +10.317s
 4. Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                  +19.194s
 5. Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati           +23.509s
 6. Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha          +27.809s
 7. Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha           +33.253s
 8. Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                  +33.868s
 9. Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           +34.231s
10. Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                  +34.676s
11. Scott Redding     Gresini Honda           +37.744s
12. Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda             +45.018s
13. Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda           +45.177s
14. Nicky Hayden      Aspar Honda             +46.676s
15. Danilo Petrucci   Ioda Aprilia            +52.769s
16. Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda               +53.889s
17. Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati           +54.476s
18. Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki    +56.215s
19. Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha           +56.293s
20. Colin Edwards     Forward Yamaha        +1m04.083s
21. Broc Parkes       PBM Aprilia           +1m10.928s
22. Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  +1m19.975s
                                                      
Retirements:                                          
                                                      
   Michael Laverty    PBM Aprilia              17 laps