Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has made it an unbelievable nine wins from nine races this season with a perfect weekend in Germany, clinching pole position, fastest race lap (lap 21/30 1’22.037) and the race victory. Teammate, Dani Pedrosa, finished in second place – just 1.4s behind Marc – to earn Honda’s third 1-2 finish of this incredible season.
It was a complicated race due to a brief rain shower at 13h30 – just half an hour before the race start – which left the track slightly wet. The riders exited the pits on wet tyres to test the conditions and asses how wet the track was. As they sat on the grid for fifteen minutes, the track began to dry rapidly and on the warm up lap fourteen riders including all the front runners – except Stefan Bradl (who already changed onto slicks on the grid) – entered the pits to swap bikes for the slick tyres and therefore start from the pit lane.
The riders jostled for position in the pit lane, creating a make-shift grid, and Marc and Dani – who were first and second in the initial starting grid – emerged into 10th and 13th respectively. Dani immediately began to pass and was up to 11th by the end of the first lap. Both riders found their rhythm quickly passing many riders and by lap five they were already on the back of Stefan Bradl. On lap six Marc took the lead and on lap seven Dani passed Stefan and was on Marc’s rear wheel.
The Repsol Honda duo then rode a perfect race as they not only controlled the gap to the rest of the field but gradually extended it, finishing a full ten seconds in front of third place Jorge Lorenzo. Marc has now won for the past five years in Sachsenring – all from pole position – and has become the first rider to win the opening nine races of the year since Giacomo Agostini won the first ten races of the 1970 season.
He continues to extend his lead in the Championship, now on 225 points and Dani reclaims second place with 148, ahead of Valentino Rossi on 141. Honda extend their lead in the Constructors Championship – now 71 points ahead – and continue to be the most successful manufacturer at the Sachsenring with nine wins since the introduction of the four-stroke MotoGP class in 2002. The Repsol Honda Team are now 135 points ahead in the Team’s Championship.
The team will now pack up in Germany and drive 660km to Brno, Czech Republic, for a three-day test starting on Tuesday.
