Marc Marquez (Honda) made a remarkable return to the top of the rostrum today at the Sachsenring. With a great start from the middle of the second row, Marquez took the lead for good after just two laps. He built a comfortable gap to second place before Miguel Oliveira (KTM) worked his way to that position, and pressured Marquez for the remainder of the race.
Olivera came home second with current championship points leader Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) finishing third.
This was the first win by Marquez in 581 days as a result of the broken arm he received at the beginning of last year and the subsequent rehabilitation process. Since returning to racing, Marquez has had more downs than ups, but today saw him take a convincing win at his favorite track – taking his 11th straight win here
By finishing 3rd while title rival Johann Zarco (Ducati) could only manage 8th place, Quartararo extends his points lead to 22. The riders will be racing again next weekend at Assen. For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site.
Good to see Marquez back and Fabio holding on. This might be the year where Ducati loses again despite having the best bike but to many good riders. I found day the comments by maverick and Pol the most interesting and completely opposite. Pol takes the high road and blames himself, and sounds like he is going to change everything to mock the Legend. Maverick blames Yamaha and pretty much says. I ride the way I ride and make it work for me. Pol’s got a mountain to climb and Maverick has pretty much sealed his fate and admitted defeat. They should put Franco on that bike now and extend his contract. KTM is becoming consistent and I think next year is gonna be great. Hopefully Pedrosa runs a couple this year, I don’t think he will unless he feels he’s got a shot at winning.
I didn’t like what MM did to Vinales in Magello. I know it was legal, but it ruined Vinales’s momentum. Marquez pushes racing limits whenever he can get away with them. I understand “that’s racing”, but I don’t like him for it.
Hopefully the others can compete with him when he gets back to 100% because if not, it’ll be boring again. That is until Pedro Acosta from moto 3 gets there in a few years.
Did you watch Q2 for this race? A whole pack of riders were waiting in a group for a tow.
Clearly MM turns left better than his competition. He dominates the counter clockwise tracks.
F1 is now slightly more interesting but MotoGP is fantastic. Brands are all pretty competitive except for the Yamahas which need an rider exorcism for the most part. Maverick should be first in line.
Congrats to Marc Marquez. Brilliant ride. Also givin’ it up to Oliveira and Binder. Ride of the day has to go to Bagnaia. 15th to 5th on a track not well-suited to passing. In Moto2, Remy Gardner is the boss!
Hey Motorcycle Daily, please give some thought so your lead pictures/headlines don’t act as spoilers for those of us that check your page by habit daily, forget what day is a race day and can’t un-see the results from a glance.
I’ve sent the same request to Cycle News, who insist on putting the winners in the banner. I don’t get it. Don’t you want people to read the article?
Dirck is reporting news, often times a day after it happened. Why wouldn’t he do what literally every other reporting service does with their headlines?
Check any headline following the Super Bowl, NBA finals, World Series, Stanley Cup, World Cup, Indy 500, Daytona 500, etc. For that matter, it doesn’t have to be a championship event. It could just be a June tilt between the Giants and Phillies. Do you think ESPN, yahoo, or even your local paper leaves it a mystery as to who won?
No, they don’t. The headline always tells you who won.
This is on you, not Dirck. If you don’t want to know who won, don’t click on news sites. Watch the event live, or record it and make sure not to check the news before finally watching your recording. Either way, don’t blame Dirck for doing his job.
Did anyone get blamed? Seems like a simple request that’s within his rights to reject.
“I’ve sent the same request to Cycle News, who insist on putting the winners in the banner. I don’t get it. Don’t you want people to read the article?”
Sounds like blame to me. You’re behaving like you’re mystified by his duty as a reporter to do what every other news source on earth also does, then you double down on it by insinuating people won’t read the article because the winner is revealed in the headline.
It’s a race report. What difference does it make whether he reveals the winner in the headline or in the body of the text? Is it somehow crucial for you to not know who won until you’ve read a paragraph or two? Is he supposed to present it as some sort of cliffhanger, in which he doesn’t reveal the winner until the very last line of the article?
It’s a freaking news story on a news site. He’s going to reveal the winner of the race. How else is this supposed to go?
“Scan the barcode to see the full race results…if you dare!”
“It’s a freaking news story on a news site. He’s going to reveal the winner of the race. How else is this supposed to go?”
With a headline that doesn’t reveal the winner, allowing those of us who can’t watch the race live to hold off reading the article.
If I see a headline of “Rain Makes For Tricky Mugello MotoGP,” I can delay reading the news story until after I see the race on my DVR.
Haha. I just had to get in the habit of not looking at any motorcycle site (actually, any new feed at all) until I had seen the races. I’d like it myself if the picture wouldn’t give away the winner, but it is probably not fair to expect a news site to mitigate spoiler risk for us.
The thing that kills me is the MotoGP app/subscription. I’ve set all defaults to “no spoiler” everywhere I can find on all my devices yet somehow it reverts back and spoils everything with giant, screaming headlines and photos when I log in. This is immensely frustrating for a paid service…
Easy enough solution. Bookmark the No Spoilers link. Don’t click on your MotoGP.com link. Just click the separate No Spoilers link you created. That’s what I do, and it works perfectly.
Problem solved.
It’s not that simple. Depending on time of day/family activities, I watch it on one of three TVs with the Roku MotoGP app, my phone, or my laptop. Guessing this is complicating things… but it’s my use case.
I’ve set that default toggle everywhere I can find, including in user settings on the website. Nothing works. It’s maddening.
Hmmm. My app always opens to the “No Spoilers” page. There is a little button on that screen that says “Set this screen as default.” I don’t think it has ever failed me.
It was great to see Marc back in form again. It’s been a rough year and a half for him, his family, and his team. Admittedly, this track is a bit of an anomaly, but it shows definite progress is being made. Hopefully, his arm and shoulder will heal up completely, so he will be able to compete at 100%.
We’ll learn more next week, plus the summer break will give him more recovery time. The Austrian race in August will be a good indication of whether all the hard work will pay off for him.
Brinskee, why is an asterisk necessary and obvious?
Dittos
Big asterisk next to this win for obvious reasons.
No asterisk needed. He kicked their butts.
And why would that be?
I understand where you are coming from – it is a track that Marquez has traditionally dominated.
But if you need to put an asterisk after the name of a Marc Marquez who is only say 98% back to full form and yet still managed to obliterate the rest of the field, what is that saying exactly?
It’s a track with almost all left turns. Doesn’t strain his injured arm as much as other tracks. Let’s see how he does this week at Assen.
I think it’s safe to say if he keeps it on two wheels at Assen he will finish better than 3/4 of the riders out there, who didn’t have a near career ending injury last year.
I don’t think ANYONE expects him to win every race from here on out. I don’t think ANYONE expects him to win the WC this year either. I expect those who follow MotoGP will NOT be surprised if he finishes with more points than half the field by the end of the year. Certainly more than Rossi and probably more than Maverick. It wouldn’t surprise ME if he finishes in the top 6 or 7 in points by the end of the year.
He got more points at Germany alone than 8 or 9 of the riders have earned in all the races so far put together.
1. “if he keeps it on two wheels,” that’s part of it.
2. Nope.
3. No way.
4. I’d guess so.
5. Rossi, for sure. Maverick, tough to say.
6. Mhmmm, I’m not sure yet.
7. Unsurprising, given 25 points for a win and some of the names in the field.
I don’t think he’ll win another MotoGP championship. More races? Probably. But I think he was knocked down quite a few steps with his injury and will never be back at the level he once was.
His drive and motivation are probably unchanged, but his mental state and physical limitations will prevent him from fighting at the top, on most weekends, without courses on which he can nurse both.
Hence, the asterisk, which I see as obvious.
well here are some of the names he’s already leading in the points standings
11 Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 40
12 Pol Espargaro Honda 35
13 Takaaki Nakagami Honda
14 Alex Rins Suzuki 28
15 Enea Bastianini Ducati 26
16 Alex Marquez Honda 25
17 Jorge Martin Ducati 23
18 Danilo Petrucci KTM 23
19 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 17
20 Luca Marini Ducati 14
21 Iker Lecuona KTM 13
22 Stefan Bradl Honda 11
23 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 4
24 Michele Pirro Ducati 3
25 Tito Rabat Ducati 1
I get what you are saying. Even Marc said his his win was due to a perfect storm of circumstances that he outlined as:
1) a track that suits the Honda,
2) his physical limitations didn’t really come into play because there were only 3 right turns
3) The spits of rain that encouraged him to open the gap when everyone else backed off.
4) Olivera wasn’t in P2 when he opened that first gap
He also said Lemans would be quite the struggle and not to expect a repeat of this weekend. So Marc clearly doesn’t believe that he’s back yet. But he was fast enough to win regardless. I don’t think this needs an asterisk. If it does, any race ever won by anybody needs an asterisk.
As far as never winning another championship, that is a bold prediction. If that plays out to be true, I think that would be due more to the fact that the competition is so elevated now and that Marc will soon be coming up in a decade of dominance, which seems to be the lifespan of dominance in this sport.
I disagree though. I think he’ll spend this year getting stronger and developing a bike he feels went in the wrong direction during his absence. 2022 will see him fighting for the championship again.
Re: Jeremy’s post. I agree and think Marquez does have a championship or two left in him.
Re: Jeremy – it’s bold, but we all have our views and assess things differently.
I’ve been majorly injured on a bike with complications in the healing process, and it gets in your head and affects your ability to compete. I speak from experience, and mine was a leg injury; I can’t imagine what such a severe arm injury, with possible nerve damage and shoulder issues, must do, physiologically and psychologically, to impact performance.
I think it’s a confluence of factors that would contribute to MM93 not capturing another title – the two I mentioned, your view about a younger, hungry field catching up, which I share, and a final element – simply aging. Slowing of response times, concentration, decision making, etc. It gets us all, eventually.
Part of me is super bummed to see that level of competitor knocked down to earth (even with this asterisk win). I don’t wish bad fortune on him or anyone else. I might be wrong; he may win multiple more championships.
It will be interesting to watch, without doubt, not only continued attempts at returning to his previous level of greatness but also in who will eventually come along to take his place. I don’t think it will be Mir…
I guess I’d better go back and watch all the races from the past 30 years now. Need to evaluate each to see if an asterisk is needed. Oh boy. SMH.
You obviously don’t know Marc. This race fueled him. The last three race crashes helped him rediscover the limits and the ragged edge.
Marc is not guaranteed to win another race. But he’s back. And he’s on fire.
I took your “asterisk” comment as a reference to the slight rain that began to fall, which changed everything in the race. Once the rain started, everyone but Marc backed off. He went harder, opening up the gap that Oliveira couldn’t overcome.
As the announcers stated multiple times, Marc wasn’t concerned about the championship. Whereas the main protagonists in the championship understandably had to be more cautious so as to avoid the risk of throwing away valuable points, Marc could and did throw caution to the wind.
Had it not been for the rain, I think Oliveira probably wins that race.
He’s starting to look like Gilbert Gottfried.
Great ride by Marquez. It looked quite competitive until the last 2 laps though with many in contention.
Quatararo rode like the champion he is becoming.
Oliveira and Binder are really becoming threats as well, and congrats to KTM they seem to finally be there. Aprilia too is showing great signs of life. A front row and a decent ride by A Espargaro.
If Honda should be glad to have Marquez, then Yamaha should be glad to have Quatararo because Rossi and Vinales aren’t getting it. They finished what 14th and dead last? And Morbidelli 18th? We should go back to preseason or the first race report and see how many thought Vinales wouldn’t fade as usual, and how many thought he would. I remember there were some strong discussions here about this. Wonder how long it will be before he changes Crew Chiefs again (like they are the problem).
I was thinking the exact same thing. It seems Quartararo is one of those Marquezian talents that can take the bike, faults and all, and pretty much bend it to his will while other elite riders need the bike to come to them in order to be consistently fast. Yamaha is lucky to have him.
I was a bit downtrodden when Olivera and Binder went to KTM (as well as Zarco.) Those guys showed amazing talent in Moto2 and Moto3, and I was afraid they’d be lost to history in KTM’s ranks. I’m so glad the bike is getting to a point where they can make other riders nervous when their names and gap show up on the pit boards.
I was one of those guys that hoped this would be the year that Maverick wouldn’t fade. Out of Rossi’s shadow, an über-talented young teammate to push him… Alas, it is classic Mav unfortunately. The guy on the other side of the garage is riding the wheels off the same bike, and Maverick had pulled a shiny, new crew chief off the shelf enough times now that the problem should be obvious. I guarantee it is obvious to Yamaha.
I can’t stand him, but he is a phenomenal pilot, he can make something that is a dog look like a great motorcycle. Honda should thank God that Marquez was in their team for the last decade.
It was nice to see the grid without him for a while if only to shake things up, but it is equally amazing to see him on top of a podium again after such a major injury.. Meanwhile if I sleep funny on my left side Imma complain about my arm for a week afterwards.
With so many just hating him, it will be interesting to read how they rate this. Lets see.
He’s baaaaack!
;^)