Race report

MotoGP German GP: Martin defeats Oliveira, Bagnaia to take sprint win

Martin re-establishes himself as the king of sprint races at the Sachsenring

Jorge Martin came out on top in a three-way battle with Miguel Oliveira and Francesco Bagnaia to win the German Grand Prix sprint and extend his lead in the MotoGP standings.

After a tight early fight between the trio that saw all three briefly lead, Martin was able to assert his pace and win by 0.676s from Oliveira, with Bagnaia completing the podium spots.

At the start of the race, Martin got away well from pole position on his Pramac Ducati but came under pressure from Trackhouse rival Oliveira, before Bagnaia came through from fifth on the grid to stick the factory GP24 up the inside and take the lead into Turn 2.

However, Martin remained close to the leading duo for the remainder of the lap and repassed Oliveira going into Turn 1 at the start of the following tour, before barging past Bagnaia at Turn 8 to put himself back in the front.

Oliveira also took advantage of the situation to demote Bagnaia to third into the final corner, putting himself between the two championship contenders.

Martin initially failed to shake off Oliveira and Bagania as the trio continued to run head-to-toe at the Sachsenring, but by lap 12 he was finally a second clear of the chasing duo, who were joined by Enea Bastianini on the second works Ducati.

Although the gap between Martin and the rest came down in the final part of the sprint, he was never in a serious threat as he took the chequered flag in first position to claim his first sprint win since Le Mans.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Oliveira crossed the finish line in second to secure a maiden podium for the new Trackhouse operation, while Bagnaia led team-mate Bastianini and saw his deficit to Martin grow back up to 15 points.

Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli didn’t have the pace to remain with the lead group but he did enough to score fifth ahead of Gresini ace Marc Marquez, who inched just 0.003s clear of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales in the dash to the finish line to take sixth.

Both had qualified out of position, with Vinales only lining up eighth after a frightening crash in qualifying and Marquez - who himself was not at his 100% after a fall in practice - starting 13th after being impeded by Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl in Q1.

Factory KTM rider Brad Binder was the top representative for the Pierer Mobility Group in eighth after Tech3 GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta dropped to the back with an unspecified issue with just three laps to run.

The final point in the sprint went to Alex Marquez on the second Gresini Ducati, while the top 10 was rounded out by VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi.

Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez, who had qualified on the front row alongside polesitter Martin and team-mate Oliveira, struggled for pace on his year-old RS-GP and slipped to 14th at the chequered flag, behind KTM’s Jack Miller, VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio and the top Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo.

Honda’s top finisher was factory rider Luca Marini in 15th.

MotoGP German GP - Sprint results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	15	-				12
2	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	15	+0.676 0.676	0.676			9
3	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	15	+1.311 1.311	0.635			7
4	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	15	+1.458 1.458	0.147			6
5	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	15	+5.600 5.600	4.142			5
6	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	15	+6.281 6.281	0.681			4
7	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	15	+6.284 6.284	0.003			3
8	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	15	+9.061 9.061	2.777			2
9	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	15	+9.201 9.201	0.140			1
10	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	15	+10.800 10.800	1.599
11	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	15	+13.815 13.815	3.015
12	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	15	+13.960 13.960	0.145
13	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	15	+14.432 14.432	0.472
14	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	15	+15.329 15.329	0.897
15	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	15	+15.430 15.430	0.101
16	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	15	+15.493 15.493	0.063
17	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	15	+16.205 16.205	0.712
18	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	15	+20.321 20.321	4.116
19	S. Bradl HRC Test Team	6	Honda	15	+23.733 23.733	3.412
20	R. Gardner Yamaha Factory Racing	87	Yamaha	15	+26.366 26.366	2.633
21	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	15	+26.668 26.668	0.302
22	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	15	+26.715 26.715	0.047
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