Before last weekend, Marc Marquez had never lost a MotoGP race he’d started at the Sachsenring.
What a contrast the 2023 German Grand Prix was: five crashes (three of them within 20 minutes in a single qualifying session), a trundle backwards to a finish outside the points in the sprint and then a non-start in the GP after a final crash in the warm-up.
So is it game over for the Marquez/Honda relationship? That’s certainly what The Race MotoGP Podcast panel Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer reckon.
Marquez’s astonishing(ly bad) weekend is the biggest topic of conversation in our Sachsenring episode, from his actions after the dramatic practice crash with Johann Zarco through to his subdued exit from the weekend just before the main race was due to start.
But those who actually contested the grand prix do get a look-in too, as we celebrate an amazing battle between Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia for victory, assess what might happen next in the title fight they’re now in, and consider the chance of Martin edging out Enea Bastianini for a shock move to the works Ducati fold alongside Bagnaia in 2024.
That great race followed criticism from some riders on Saturday of how “boring” MotoGP has become. Do they still have a point? And is the level of domination Ducati’s now achieving – as it took eight of the top nine places in the German GP – as problematic as it might seem? We debate all that too.
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