Marc Marquez headed a Ducati 1-2-3 in the MotoGP sprint race at his beloved Sachsenring on Saturday, leading his brother Alex and Fabio Di Giannantonio across the line.
With Marco Bezzecchi absent following an earlier qualifying crash, his team-mate Jorge Martin stretched his advantage at the top of the points table to 11 after coming home in sixth.
This was the first start following MotoGP’s latest safety tweak, namely adding more space between grid slots and rows – and it proved a particularly undramatic one as polesitter Marc kept the lead ahead of Alex.
Ai Ogura briefly nosed ahead of Di Giannantonio into the first corner, but the Italian returned the favour later in the lap, meaning the three Ducatis on the front row had firmly established themselves in grid order at the head of the field.
Next up came a trio of Apriias, with Ogura leading Trackhouse team-mate Raul Fernandez and factory rider Martin. By mid-distance, the leading four had made a small break from the next group: Fernandez, Martin, factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia and KTM’s Pedro Acosta.
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
On lap 11 of 15, only Alex Marquez looked like a serious challenger as the front quartet had seemingly halved to a leading pair. Late in the race though came a charge from Di Giannantonio, who put Alex under pressure for second over the final couple of laps.
As was the case throughout a thoroughly uneventful sprint, however, the ebb and flow of gaps did not translate to so much as a wheel being shown once the order settled down early on.
Ducati and the Marquez family had much to celebrate, but spectators at the Sachsenring could certainly have hoped for better entertainment in a race that rivaled last month’s Balaton Park sprint for its monotony.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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