MotoGP Race And Practice Results

Results:

With its longstanding monarch busy walking the dogs (and recovering from major surgery), the Sachsenring was looking to crown some new royalty – although it did not make it easy for the contenders, with rather tropical conditions during the premier class race. But at the end of a long gruelling 30 laps, there was finally a new occupant on the top spot of the podium and a very deserved one in Fabio Quartararo, the world champion taking over the crown of the Sachsenring with a commanding victory, ruling by nearly five seconds over his rivals. After Ducati’s main man bailed out early on, Johann Zarco and Jack Miller were left to pick up the pieces, the Frenchman claiming second to solidify his position as Ducati’s lead title contender, while the Australian recovered from a long lap penalty to steal the final podium position.

Pecco Bagnaia’s start from pole didn’t do him much good, with Quartararo immediately attacking him into turn one and although the Italian tried to retaliate next time around, the Yamaha man immediately snuck back past on the exit. Having started on the second row, Aleix Espargaro gained one position to trail the feisty leaders but was soon under fire from Zarco, while Miller lingered half a second back after the first couple of laps, the Australian yet to serve his long lap penalty for crashing under yellow flags the day before. The opening laps were a particularly tricky affair for the likes of Jorge Martin, who dropped down to the bottom of the top 10, Joan Mir who was stranded in 12th and Enea Bastianini, who lost ground from an already poor grid position to find himself 21st.

No such issues for Quartararo, who was immediately attempting to make a break at the front and his escape was promptly aided by Bagnaia throwing his machine at the turn one scenery at the start of lap four, prompting a festival of yellow flags, with crashes in quick succession for the likes of Mir and Darryn Binder. Bagnaia’s mistake left Zarco with the task of reeling in his compatriot, who was already one and a half seconds ahead, while seemingly dropping the Aprilias of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales, the latter’s progress helped by Miller serving his penalty on lap five, which dropped him to seventh position, behind Fabio Di Giannantonio and Martin. Brad Binder was making good progress as the lead KTM man in 8th, ahead of Luca Marini, while Pol Espargaro was the sole Honda representative in the top 10, after Alex Marquez retired and Takaaki Nakagami took a tumble on lap seven.

Only a third into the race, it already looked like a third successful escape of the day, with Quartararo managing his 1.5 second gap over Zarco, while Espargaro’s focus was on keeping teammate Viñales out of his hair in the battle for third. Hoping to re-join that particular battle, Miller had progressed through the chasing pack to take fifth by lap 12 and had a two second gap to close on the Aprilia-powered podium contenders.

If Zarco was keeping Quartararo honest for the first half of the race, the world champion doubled his advantage going into the second half, the Aprilias dropping a sizeable four seconds behind. If Viñales looked like a serious threat to his teammate’s podium in the early stages, a moment at turn eight lost him fourth in Miller’s favour and the Spaniard was then forced to retire with a rear ride-height device failure a couple of laps later. That left Espargaro under fire from Miller, while Martin picked up the lead of a feisty group battling for fifth, including Marini, Binder and Di Giannantonio.

Back at the front, Quartararo had steadily stretched a four second gap with five laps remaining, with Zarco enjoying a five second gap of his own over Aleix Espargaro, who still had Miller glued to his rear tyre. Miller made a few attempts, but the accompanying mistakes kept him behind the Spaniard until Espargaro himself left his braking a bit late at turn one and allowed Miller past with three laps to go. As soon as he found himself ahead, Miller managed to keep Espargaro at a respectable half second distance and secured the final podium spot behind the Frenchmen. Marini’s impressive pace in the closing stages equalled his best result in the class with fifth place ahead of Martin, while Binder and Oliveira sandwiched Di Giannantonio in positions seven to nine. Bastianini saved a top 10 from a particularly difficult weekend in Germany, but nowhere near as difficult as Honda’s, whose sole finishing rider was Stefan Bradl, the local rider coming home last after Pol Espargaro retired eight laps earlier.

The freshly crowned King of the Ring adds a whole pile of points to his world championship tally, Quartararo extending his advantage to 34 points over Aleix Espargaro, while Zarco fronts Ducati’s campaign on a 61-point deficit.

Results:

A scorching Sachsenring set the scene for the lightweight class kerfuffle, but the battle for victory ended up being both unusually uneventful and predictably secured by Izan Guevara, the poleman maintaining the impressive pace he showed throughout the weekend to run away at the front of the field. The Spaniard took the chequered flag five seconds ahead of his pursuers and secured back-to-back victories to solidify his title bid. The likes of Dennis Foggia and Sergio Garcia could not match their rival’s pace and waited until the final lap to decide the remaining podium positions, with Foggia declining Garcia’s advances at the final corner to keep second position, while Garcia limited the damage in the world championship with a third place.

Guevara was untouchable from the very beginning, making a great launch from pole to lead ahead of the Leopard Racing duo of Foggia and Tatsuki Suzuki. Rookies David Muñoz and Dani Holgado kept Garcia company right behind, while a bit of early chaos was unfolding behind them, with an overly enthusiastic Carlos Tatay taking Riccardo Rossi and John McPhee out of contention at turn one, Ryusei Yamanaka serving a long lap penalty before being sent into the gravel by Deniz Öncü, who in turn got a double long lap penalty for a jump start, followed by a crash for Matteo Bertelle and Scott Ogden at turn seven, drastically reducing the numbers in the main pack. Meanwhile, Jaume Masia was aiming for a comeback from his qualifying misfortune and was threatening the top 10 after the first few laps.

Back at the front, things were going to plan for Guevara, the poleman managing an early gap of half a second, while the Leopard boys were being challenged by Holgado, Garcia and Sasaki. Muñoz and Kelso were pushing to catch up with the leading group but a mysterious lap seven saw the Australian sliding into the gravel trap and the Spaniard quickly lose significant ground and drop into a second group led by Masia and Öncü, almost four seconds behind the leaders.

While Guevara grew his gap to one full second by lap 10, teammate Garcia and rival Foggia were particularly eager to get to the front of the pursuit, but with the threat of track limits warnings already. Although the chasing group didn’t disturb each other too much, their pace was no match for the runaway poleman, who continued to add tenths of a second to his already significant advantage.

By the halfway point of proceedings, Guevara was 1.5 seconds ahead of the pursuit led by Foggia and although the Italian started stringing together red sector times, that gap resisted, and it seemed like the focus would soon switch to defending second from the strong group including Garcia, Sasaki, Suzuki and Holgado. Seven seconds down the road, Öncü was fending off teammate Adrian Fernandez for seventh position, with Masia and Muñoz duelling for ninth.

With nine laps to go, Guevara’s lead had expanded to three seconds, with no significant moves made yet in the group of podium contenders, who were seemingly biding their time until the final few laps. Garcia made some tentative approaches on Foggia with three laps remaining and although an overtake was still pending, the duo had steadily stretched a gap over Sasaki, Suzuki and Holgado for the final few laps.

While Guevara was already celebrating victory, Garcia attacked Foggia at the final corner but the Italian swept back past to keep second. Although he faded from the podium battle over the final couple of laps, fourth place was still an impressive comeback for Sasaki, while compatriot Suzuki completed the top five. Rookie Holgado took sixth place ahead of Öncü and Fernandez, with Muñoz and fellow rookie Ivan Ortolá completing the top 10, after mistakes from Masia dropped him down the timesheets late on.

Although Garcia continues to lead the championship battle, teammate Guevara closes in to only seven points, with Foggia 51 points behind.

Results: