The Malta Independent 20 April 2024, Saturday
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MotoGP: Marquez completes perfect 10 as Quartararo, Rins crash out

Sunday, 7 July 2019, 16:20 Last update: about 6 years ago

Marc Marquez has produced a perfect 10 performance at the German MotoGP to take full control of the world championship fight, while key rivals Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins both crashed out at Sachsenring.

With Marquez notching in an untouchable race pace from the start, the Repsol Honda rider pulled out a lead at will - securing a new lap record at Sachsenring of 1m 21.228s in the process - to dominate to victory and complete his 10th consecutive pole position and win feat at the German track to extend his championship lead to 58 points over Andrea Dovizioso.

The reigning MotoGP world champion's charge was also aided by two key opponents crashing out of the race.

Quartararo was the first to go, suffering his first MotoGP fall in a race, with the Petronas Yamaha rider going off on the second lap at Turn 3.

As the running order settled down Suzuki's Alex Rins led the pursuit of Marquez in second place but he also went down coming off at the high-speed Waterfall corner on Lap 19.

 

With Maverick Vinales promoted to second place, it gave Marquez a comfortable gap to ease to victory and match Valentino Rossi's all-time feat of 10 wins at a single circuit which have come at Mugello.

The Monster Yamaha rider was pursued by LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow throughout the Sachsenring race but kept clear of the British rider to hold on the runner-up spot.

With Crutchlow completing the podium, there was an almighty battle for fourth place between a train of Ducati riders which was eventually won by Danilo Petrucci ahead of fellow factory rider Dovizioso with Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller having to settle for sixth place.

Joan Mir had to settle for seventh place in an eventful race for the MotoGP rookie as he surged ahead of the Ducati riders at two-thirds race distance only to suffer a bad late race fade for Suzuki.

Valentino Rossi claimed eighth place on the factory Yamaha ahead of Petronas Yamaha's Franco Morbidelli as Stefan Bradl rounded out the top 10 standing in for the injured Jorge Lorenzo at Repsol Honda.

Tito Rabat produced a standout race starting from last place to charge to 11th for Avintia Ducati ahead of Red Bull KTM's Pol Espargaro who were both promoted up a spot following Aleix Espargaro's crash at Turn 1 with two laps to go for Aprilia.

Andrea Iannone kept up the Aprilia fight in 13th place ahead of walking-wounded Takaaki Nakagami in 14th place for LCR Honda as Karel Abraham claimed the final point place on the Avintia Ducati.

Hafizh Syahrin just missed out on the points for Tech3 but finished ahead of Francesco Bagnaia, who took a trip through the gravel during the race, with Miguel Oliveira completing the finishers having gone down at Turn 3 early on. Johann Zarco also crashed out at Turn 3 which forced him out of the race.


 


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