MotoGP

Martin dominates German GP sprint ahead of Oliveira

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
2 min read

MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin dominated the German Grand Prix sprint at the Sachsenring despite dropping behind title rival Pecco Bagnaia at the start.

It marked Martin's first win since the French Grand Prix and snapped a streak of five successive wins for Bagnaia, who now sits 15 points behind Martin.

A double front row for Trackhouse Aprilia was converted into a first podium, courtesy of 2025 free agent Miguel Oliveira.

Sachsenring specialist Marc Marquez recovered seven places from 13th on the grid after his ludicrous Q1 exit earlier on Saturday.

Though Bagnaia had lined up on second row, he was into the lead coming out of Turn 1 - with Martin and Oliveira running wide ahead of him and Raul Fernandez having had a slow start.

But Martin worked his way past Oliveira at Turn 1 on the second lap, and was already lunging on Bagnaia at the same corner the following tour, albeit with Bagnaia managing to retake position as Martin ran wide.

But Martin picked off Bagnaia later into the lap, with Oliveira following through at the final corner.

The trio were joined by Enea Bastianini, sixth after the start but fighting his way through, to form a breakaway group of fourth, before Martin made a second breakaway of his own in the final third of the 15-lap race.

It secured him the win, while Oliveira withstood a brief burst of pressure from Bagnaia to hang on to second, by far the best result of his and Trackhouse's season yet.

Basgianini took the chequered flag 0.147s behind team-mate Bagnaia.

Beaten up after a painful over-the-handlebars Q2 crash, Maverick Vinales moved up to fifth at the start but couldn't run with the leading pack and was overtaken by Pramac Ducati's Franco Morbidelli around the halfway point.

He kept pace with Morbidelli from there on but, rather than attack him on the final lap, had to contend with Marc Marquez.

Marquez had gained two positions at the start, then worked his way past the likes of Brad Binder and Fernandez before arriving at the back of Vinales - and lunged at him at the final corner before outdragging him to the line for sixth place in an 0.003s photo finish.

The points-scoring top nine was completed by the aforementioned Binder, the only KTM in the points, and Marquez's brother and Gresini team-mate Alex.

Despite his strong qualifying and holding fourth place at the start, Fernandez tumbled down the order to an unremarkable 14th.

Remy Gardner finished 20th on his return to MotoGP action as stand-in for injured Yamaha rider Alex Rins.

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