mobilinanews (Germany) – Failing to win the MotoGP Germany sprint race on Saturday (18/6), did not weaken the position of Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) as leader of the classification. Tomorrow in the main race there is still a chance to earn points.
Starting from pole position, Bagnaia started the race with a tough duel against his former teammate who now strengthens Red Bull KTM, Jack Miller. Miller was in good spirits up front, but as usual he started weak in the middle of the race.
The star is Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati). Starting from 6th place, the Spanish rider was able to reach the Top 3 in an instant and waged a “triangular war” against Miller and Bagnaia. Both were then overtaken by heart-pounding actions.
After passing Bagnaia, Martin proved irresistible in the short race of just 15 laps. Bagnaia then seemed to play it safe to avoid risks and fell behind more than 2 seconds at the finish line.
The right decision because Martin is not his tough challenger at the moment in the standings. In addition, his main rival, Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) was scattered in the back line.
“I don’t want to force myself. Picking up 9 points today is very good. Tomorrow in the main race, it’s much more important,” said the reigning world champion, who at the end of the Race was also safe from Miller’s pursuit.
P1 for Martin, P2 for Bagnaia and P7 for Bezzecchi to make significant changes to the standings.
Bagnaia is increasingly solid at the top with a total of 140 points. But the second position occupied by Bezzecchi has been taken over by Martin with a total of 119 points or 21 points behind Bagnaia. Bezzecchi himself fell to P3 with 113 points, further from Bagnaia.
“Today was super fantastic. Tomorrow I hope for the same result,” said Martin who is confident of repeating his action even though he will still start from P6 as Bagnaia is the poleman.
Too bad the exciting duels between Ducati and KTM jockeys could not be joined by Marc Marquez (Honda), who for 10 years has dominated the Sachsenring, winning all the races in which he participated.
This time he could only finish P11. Even then, it was a long process from practice, stuck in Q1 before eventually only being able to reach the starting position of 7th and finishing the race in 11th place.
All of them had 4 dramatic accidents, a sign that the fighting spirit of MM93 has in fact not changed. It’s just that it didn’t find its strong point on the RC213V spec 2023.
And, Marquez’s fighting spirit is still keen to play tomorrow’s race on the same track with a 30-lap race duration. He and the Repsol Honda crew hope the warm-up session can find a solution to Marquez’s difficulty handling his bike’s front wheel, which has been the weak point so far.
As Marquez said, nobody knows what will happen if he is comfortable and confident on his bike.
Today, the signs of the collapse of his “kingdom” at Sachsenring are beginning to appear. But, that’s just a sign. Whether it will really collapse on race day tomorrow, no one knows because anything can happen if the MM93 is already in the RC213V seat. (rn)
“Amateur problem solver. Hipster-friendly alcohol lover. Beer buff. Infuriatingly humble tv geek.”
