MotoGP Germany: Jorge Martin holds off Francesco Bagnaia in a classic battle at Sachsenring
Jorge Martin takes his second consecutive win at Sachsenring after holding off MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia.
Just like the sprint race, Jack Miller made the perfect start as he went from third to first heading into turn one.
The KTM rider then began to open up a small gap over the world champion, before losing the rear on entry to turn 12.
The huge wobble for Miller led to him being attacked by three Ducatis as Bagnaia regained the lead from Jorge Martin and Jack Miller.
With the two factory KTM’s battling hard for P4, Bagnaia’s time at the head of the race ended on three as Martin produced a brilliant move into turn 12.
Martin then set the fastest lap of the race one lap later as he broke clear of the factory Ducati rider, who instead came under pressure from Marini.
Stuck behind the two factory KTM’s Johann Zarco finally got through on Miller before showing his true pace just one lap later.
Martin again set the fastest lap of the race on lap six, however, Zarco came across the line to take that honour away from his teammate.
What was already a disastrous weekend, then got even worse on lap 8 for Maverick Vinales as the Aprilia rider had to retire due to a mechanical issue.
After initially losing touch with Martin, Bagnaia regrouped and began to show similar pace before closing back in on the Spaniard.
A margin of five tenths separated the top two on lap 12 as Binder was through on Marini for third. Marini then dropped to 11th as Zarco piled on more misery for the Mooney VR46 Ducati rider.
As the Grand Prix hit the mid-race distance, pressure was mounting on race leader Martin as Bagnaia reduced the lead to two tenths.
Very fast through turn 10, Bagnaia was able to carry more speed than Martin and therefore close up on the Pramac rider, however, Martin was very strong on the brakes and in sectors one and two.
After Martin put the hammer down to increase his lead by four tenths on lap 18, Bagnaia closed in once again as Zarco made it a Ducati 1-2-3 after Binder suffered a fast crash.
The South African was very shaken up as he struggled to walk away from the incident under his own power.
At the front, Bagnaia then retook the lead for the first time since the opening exchanges after making his move at turn 11.
But Martin managed to stay right with the Italian before responding with a move of his own at turn 11 on lap 24.
With four laps to go, Bagnaia recharged his batteries as he came back at Martin and nearly ran into the rear of the Spaniard on the exit of turn 11.
Two laps later and the leading pair finally came to blows as Bagnai hit the rear of Martin coming out of the final corner.
But that didn’t stop the world champion as he closed back in on Martin before getting great drive out of the final turn. However, with the finish line just on the exit of the final corner, Martin narrowly held on.
