Sachsenring MotoGP: Marquez wins after bizarre start

Marc Marquez made it nine wins in nine races at the Sachsenring on Sunday, despite having to start the race from pit lane.

20 minutes before the race rain began to fall, meaning the majority of the field took to the grid on their wet bikes. Stefan Bradl was the only notable exception, who switched to dry tyres before the warm up lap.

The majority of the rest of the field dived in to pit lane to swap to their dry bikes at the end of the warm up lap, which meant they had to start from pit lane.

Bradl started from the grid, followed by a handful of other riders from the back of the grid.

Marquez got a good start from the crowded pit lane exit and within a handful of laps had passed Bradl for the lead, taking team-mate Dani Pedrosa with him.

Pedrosa was able to get the gap to Marquez down to under half a second just after the half way point, but Marquez responded with a couple of fast laps of his own to ease to victory.

Jorge Lorenzo finished a distant third, 10 seconds behind Marquez, with team-mate Valentino Rossi further nine seconds back.

Bradl’s gamble didn’t pay off in the end, the German rider was unable to keep pace with the riders who had started from pit lane and he eventually finished outside the points in 16th.

Cal Crutchlow – another trider who started from pit lane – rode a strong race to finish 10th ahead of fellow Brit Scott Redding in 11th.

Bradley Smith crashed again in the race, but remounted to finish 19th.

1 25 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 158.1 41’47.664
2 20 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 158.0 +1.466
3 16 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 157.4 +10.317
4 13 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 156.9 +19.194
5 11 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 156.6 +23.509
6 10 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 156.3 +27.809
7 9 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 156.0 +33.253
8 8 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 155.9 +33.868
9 7 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 155.9 +34.231
10 6 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Ducati Team Ducati 155.9 +34.676
11 5 45 Scott REDDING GBR GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 155.7 +37.744
12 4 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda 155.3 +45.018
13 3 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Honda 155.3 +45.177
14 2 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Drive M7 Aspar Honda 155.2 +46.676
15 1 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo IodaRacing Team ART 154.8 +52.769
16  6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 154.7 +53.889
17  68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 154.7 +54.476
18  8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Avintia 154.6 +56.215
19  38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 154.6 +56.293
20  5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 154.1 +1’04.083
21  23 Broc PARKES AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 153.7 +1’10.928
22  63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Avintia 153.2 +1’19.975