Marquez makes it a perfect ten in Sachsenring

USPA NEWS - Perfect strategy saw Marc Marquez continue his perfect pole to victory record at the GermanGP as Bradl achieved his goal of the top ten.
A gloomy start to proceedings at the German GP didn´t deter local fans who filled the grandstands of the Sachsenring from the early hours. Mixed conditions for morning Warm Up limited running time, but Marc Marquez was able to top the session with teammate Stefan Bradl ending a strong fifth.

With a characteristically strong start, Marquez led through Turn One as the lights went out for the 30-lap German GP. Back-to-back race lap records on lap four and five, a 1´21.228 on lap five his fastest lap, signaled that Marquez was not interested in a battling victory, the new race lap record helping him to stretch his lead to over half a second. From here there was no looking back as the reigning World Champion steadily built his lead to cross the line 4.5 seconds clear of second place for the 75th victory of his Grand Prix career and his 49th win in the premier class.

The victory is Marquez´s tenth straight win at the Sachsenring, a level of domination no other rider has achieved in the modern era. Today´s victory is Marquez´s seventh visit to the top step of the podium in the premier class at the German track, equalling Valentino Rossi´s record of straight wins at Mugello. Marquez now heads into the summer break with 185 World Championship points, 58 ahead of second placed Dovizioso. The win also increases Honda´s lead in the Constructor Championship to 34 points over Ducati.

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Maverick Viñales delivered a cool-headed performance today, not giving in to the pressure of a stalking rival, and took a well-deserved second place at the Sachsenring. Rossi spent most of the race in a group battling for fourth position but wasn´t able to make strides. He ended the race in eighth. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Maverick Viñales showed his mental strength at the Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland today. He had Cal Crutchlow breathing down his neck for half of the race, trying to steal second place from him, but the Spaniard held firm, taking his second consecutive podium. Viñales had a good start from third and slotted into second in the first corner. He was going all out in the early laps, as he didn´t want to let Marc Marquez out of his sight, but tyre management was also crucial. When Álex Rins passed the Yamaha rider on lap four, the latter cleverly stuck to his rival but did not make a move, to ensure the pair of them wouldn´t lose any valuable time.

However, the number-12 rider was unable to keep up with the low 1´21s-lap pace and soon needed to shift his attention to keeping Crutchlow at bay. With Rins crashing out in lap 19, it turned into a battle for second. The Factory Yamaha man did a stellar job and, after withstanding the pressure for 15 laps, his superb concentration and consistency broke the Brit in the last lap. A small mistake from his rival finally gave Viñales some breathing space to bring his YZR-M1 over the finish line in second place, 4.587s from first. Today's second place means Viñales moves up to fifth in the championship standings with a 100-point gap to first, one position ahead of Rossi, with a 105-point deficit. Yamaha remains third in the constructor standings, and Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP also stays in third in the team classification.

Cal Crutchlow produced a superb ride to finish on the podium at the German Grand Prix. The LCR Honda CASTROL rider was involved in an entertaining battle with Maverick Vinales throughout Sunday´s race at the Sachsenring and, although he was unable to get past the Yamaha man, he still claimed third position to secure his first podium since the opening round of the season in Qatar. Crutchlow made a good start, climbing a place into fifth and would then benefit from both Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins crashing out ahead of him. The Briton applied heavy pressure to Vinales as the battle for second spot heated up in the closing stages, but eventually had to settle for third after a mistake on the penultimate lap saw him lose ground on his rival.

Marc Marquez 1° “It was a perfect strategy. But I didn´t have a perfect start as I ran a little deep at Turn One. After that my plan was two slow laps to warm the front tyre well and then push, and it´s exactly what I did. Step by step I opened the gap and followed the plan as I needed to. Once the gap was at three seconds I stayed there and saved the tyre and enjoyed riding. It´s a great feeling to win here again and to enter the summer break in this way. Congratulations also to my brother for his win today, it´s always really nice to win together! I want to say thank you to the Repsol Honda Team for their work in this race and the first half of the season.“

Maverick Viñales 2° “We discovered quite early this weekend that second place might be the best we could do here, so with that in mind we achieved the objective. For us it's really good, second is my best result here. I started well, I did a good first few laps. This result means a lot, it prepares me for Brno. I'm really happy, we understand the way to go. Yamaha is working in a good way, and I know our strong and weak points. It's good that we have a summer break to improve the bike and improve myself. The tyre choice was very difficult, I took a gamble with the hard because I worked most of the time with this tyre. It was on the limit if I could or could not finish the race, and I said to myself 'If I need to slow down in the last ten laps, I will, but I will be at the front'. I'm very pleased for Yamaha, it's very important to get a consecutive first and second place. I saw Cal on my pit board the whole time and for about fifteen laps I closed every door. I worked very hard on making sure he couldn't overtake me, because I knew if he did, he would go. Luckily I was second, so I'm very pleased and happy. I can't wait for Brno to try out the new things and see if we take a step.“

Cal Crutchlow 3° “First of all, it´s great to be on the podium at the HJC Grand Prix, the team did a fantastic job. We worked all weekend on what we thought would be a race pace. Yesterday I did around the 28 lap mark a 22.7 and that´s exactly what I did on the 28th lap today. Everybody was shocked when my pace was that, but I thought that would be the pace in the race and it was. The track condition was not great, in the middle of the race I had a bit better pace than Maverick (Vinales), but once (Alex) Rins crashed I thought I´m on the podium anyway and we had nine seconds to the guys behind and the gap was going up every lap. I planned to attack with five laps to go, but the wind was so strong that my eyes were streaming with water, so I tried to blink it out and he (Vinales) got a bit of a gap. I came again, but then with two laps to go I made a big mistake in turn 10 and lost the rear of the bike. So after that I said Maverick could have it, I´m very happy with the podium today, the team and Honda have worked very, very hard and we deserve it.“

GP of Germany - Race Classification:

1. Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 41'08.276
2. Maverick VIÑALES Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +4.587
3. Cal CRUTCHLOW LCR Honda CASTROL +7.741
4. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati Team +16.577
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team +16.669
6. Jack MILLER Pramac Racing +16.836
7. Joan MIR Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +17.156
8. Valentino ROSSI Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +19.110
9. Franco MORBIDELLI Petronas Yamaha SRT +20.634
10. Stefan BRADL Repsol Honda Team +22.708
11. Tito RABAT Reale Avintia Racing +26.345
12. Pol ESPARGARO Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +26.574
13. Andrea IANNONE Aprilia Racing Team Gresini +32.753
14. Takaaki NAKAGAMI LCR Honda IDEMITSU +32.925
15. Karel ABRAHAM Reale Avintia Racing +37.934
16. Hafizh SYAHRIN Red Bull KTM Tech 3 +41.615
17. Francesco BAGNAIA Pramac Racing +56.189
18. Miguel OLIVEIRA Red Bull KTM Tech 3 +57.377
Not Classified
41 Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
42 Alex RINS Team SUZUKI ECSTAR
5 Johann ZARCO Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
20 Fabio QUARTARARO Petronas Yamaha SRT

MotoGP Championship Standings:

1. Marc MARQUEZ Honda 185
2. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati 127
3. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati 121
4. Alex RINS Suzuki 101
5. Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha 85
6. Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 80
7. Jack MILLER Ducati 70
8. Fabio QUARTARARO Yamaha 67
9. Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda 67
10. Pol ESPARGARO KTM 56
11. Franco MORBIDELLI Yamaha 52
12. Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda 50
13. Joan MIR Suzuki 39
14. Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia 31
15. Andrea IANNONE Aprilia 21
16. Jorge LORENZO Honda 19
17. Johann ZARCO KTM 16
18. Miguel OLIVEIRA KTM 15
19. Tito RABAT Ducati 14
20. Stefan BRADL Honda 12
21. Francesco BAGNAIA Ducati 11
22. Michele PIRRO Ducati 9
23. Sylvain GUINTOLI Suzuki 3
24. Karel ABRAHAM Ducati 3
25. Hafizh SYAHRIN KTM 3
26. Bradley SMITH Aprilia