MotoGP in Germany

18.06.2023

Sprint

After the first five laps of all-out action between Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin and Jack Miller, the Ducati Lenovo Team rider opted to settle for the runner-up slot and the 9 points as his brand-mate proved to have a superior pace in the remainder of the 15-lap Sprint.

Starting from pole position - the fifteenth of his career and his third in a row - Bagnaia looked as if he had the pace to fight for the win against the Spaniard and the Australian, but once Martin got past both the leaders and pulled away, the Italian concentrated on holding off Miller for second place.

Teammate Enea Bastianini got a good start from the fourth row of the grid in eleventh position, but lost a bit of time in the second part of the race and could only finish tenth after getting the better of Marc Marquez.

Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 2nd
“I’m satisfied with the result but sincerely today I didn’t have the pace like Jorge, who was stronger than me. It wasn’t a surprise because he was strong all weekend so I was expecting him to be competitive. When I saw that it was difficult to close the gap, I just tried to control it from behind. The fight in the early laps was fun; I enjoyed it with Jack and enjoyed it with Jorge. I did a little mistake in corner 1 but apart from that, I’m happy because finishing second is always a good result and the performance was there. For sure to watch it must have been fun. Let’s continue like this because tomorrow will be an important race and I have to improve in sector 2 where I am losing a bit of time.”

Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 10th
“The race went quite well, I got away from the grid quite strong but then I touched with Aleix at the start and lost a bit of time. Then I was coming up the field well, I had a good pace up to there but unfortunately after a few laps, I had a problem with the rear and I wasn't able to do more. Too bad because I could have had a good race, tomorrow is another day, let's try to do better. I'm starting to feel quite fit again, I have to say that here the pain was really minimal, what I have left to recover, certainly for the strength, that will take some time. I think I'm at a good level now, so let's hope it's all downhill from here on.”

Race

Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) and Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) put on an enthralling head-to-head battle in round 7 of the MotoGP World Championship at the Sachsenring circuit in Germany, with victory – the second GP win of his career – just going to the Spaniard by 0.06s at the finishing line.

Right from the start of the 30-lap encounter, it was clear that the battle for victory was going to be between the Italian, who started from pole, and the Spaniard, who won the 15-lap Sprint yesterday. Bagnaia led the opening lap, but Martin, sixth on the grid, moved to the front with a spectacular overtake at the Waterfall, the scene for several passes during the race. As they pulled away from the rest of the field, there was little between the two until the end, the gap oscillating between 0.6s and 0.4s until laps 17 to 20 when Bagnaia annulled Martin’s lead and then took over again at the front for three more laps. With Martin again back in front from lap 24 onwards, the stage was all set for a slipstream drag to the line, but Bagnaia’s front tyre touched slightly with Martin’s rear and despite Pecco’s best efforts on the final lap, Martin completed his extraordinarily successful German GP weekend.

A still under-par Enea Bastinianini, starting tenth on the grid, had a solid race in that position until lap 17, when he passed Espargarò for ninth, and he then inherited eighth place overall when Binder crashed out on lap 19.

With Zarco, Bezzecchi and Marini taking third, fourth and fifth, Ducati monopolized the top 5 in the premier class classification for the first time, and also became the first constructor to do so since Honda in the 2003 Rio de Janeiro GP. Moreover, eight Desmosedici GP bikes closed in the top 9.

In the MotoGP World Championship, four Ducatis are now in the top 4 positions in the classification, with Bagnaia on 160 points, 16 in front of Martin, who after this weekend’s results is emerging as his closest rival in the standings.

Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 2nd
“That was fun! We found something more since yesterday, the pace today was incredible and I wasn’t expecting it. I think to beat Jorge we needed something more today but we were very close, we touched twice! I’m happy with the result and happy for him, he deserved the win so let’s now move on to Assen with a great feeling. He was able to be closer compared to me in the exit of the corners, I was just trying to maximize the feeling and it was OK, in the last lap I tried to get back to him but for sure we have to improve on circuits where the bike turns more. Now we move on to Assen next week, one of my favourite tracks!”

Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 8th
“Today's race went well and I am happy. I am still not totally back to normal, but we are close. I didn't expect to be able to do this performance after Mugello, but I feel good. This was a less demanding track, and while I had to take a day off after the Italian GP, now I feel ready to go back to training right away! Today's race showed that ours is a really good package, but I think Jorge and Pecco also made the difference compared to the other Ducati riders. I still don’t know the GP23 that well, but I hope I can soon get to fight with them and for the top 5 after the summer break."

The Ducati Lenovo Team will now pack up and quickly head across Germany for Sunday’s final round of three in successive weekends, at the classic TT Assen Circuit in the Netherlands.

Race results

Pos.	Nr.	Driver	Team	Bike	Time
1	89	J. Martin			40:52.4490
2	1	F. Bagnaia			+0.064
3	5	J. Zarco			+7.013
4	72	M. Bezzecchi			+8.430
5	10	L. Marini			+11.679
6	43	J. Miller			+11.904
7	73	A. Marquez			+14.040
8	23	E. Bastianini			+14.859
9	49	F. Di Giannantonio			+17.061
10	88	M. Oliveira			+19.648
11	37	A. Fernandez			+19.997
12	21	F. Morbidelli			+22.949
13	20	F. Quartararo			+25.117
14	30	T. Nakagami			+25.327
15	25	R. Fernandez			+25.503
16	41	A. Espargaro			+28.543
17	94	J. Folger			+48.962
DNF	33	B. Binder
DNF	12	M. Viñales

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