Márquez wins again and already has eleven consecutive victories at the Sachsenring, while Pol finishes tenth.
The Repsol Honda Team riders arrived at the German Sachsenring circuit on Friday, ready to compete to score some points in this new round of the MotoGP World Championship. And, while the temperature continued to rise above 30ºC, the temperature of the track quickly reached above 50ºC for the second session of the morning.
All eyes immediately turned to Marc Márquez, as the Catalan rider, who had ten consecutive victories on this circuit, was the fastest in FP1 with a time of 1'21.660 achieved on the fourth lap. Marc was feeling strong, as well in Free Practice 2, and was able to maintain his leading position until the final laps, when he fell down the standings because of not choosing to fit new tires.
Pol Espargaró, for his part, started the weekend eager to test the Honda RC213V at this circuit. Already in FP1, Pol was driving comfortably on the German asphalt, finishing the first session in fourth place, and just 0.350 seconds behind his teammate. In free practice 2, the Granollers rider maintained his position among the top five finishers to finish fifth overall on the day. Turn 3 was a bit of struggle for Pol, because in FP1 he slipped and fell to the ground and, again, at the start of FP2. Luckily, he was unharmed from both accidents.
Saturday dawned just as hot as the day before. In these conditions, and taking into account the learning from Friday's practice 2, the change of the tire was the first order of the day for Marc, who quickly jumped to the top ten combined with a minimum of 1'21. Maintaining his place in the top ten finishers, the Cervera rider advanced directly to Q2 for the second time since his return to MotoGP. Márquez posted a 1'20.567 but, unfortunately, could not improve this time in the final minutes of the session, due to incidents on the track. As a result, he managed to carve a niche to start the race in fifth place on Sunday.
Espargaró was not so lucky, his day being very affected by an accident at the end of free practice 3. And the little Espargaró fell on his last fastest lap of the session. The signals, until then, were very positive, but the drop turned into a trip to Q1. There was no way to stop # 44 as he force-marched into Q2. And, with a 1'20.659 at the end of the session, Espargaró finished quite satisfied after all, clinching an eighth place on the grid.
On Sunday, there was nothing to stop Marc Márquez since the lights went out at Sachsenring. The eight-time world champion lunged forward, taking the second position already at the second corner. At the end of the first lap, he had already taken the lead, after fighting a brief duel with Aleix Espargaró. The constant rhythm that he was able to maintain made Marc constantly increase the advantage against his rivals. Miguel Oliveira was the only driver capable of presenting him with a little battle, but it was not enough to prevent the victory of Márquez who, 336 days after his injury, he was winning a race again.
For Pol, the day started well, placing second in the Warm Up after leading most of the session. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a difficult race for Espargaró, who finished 10th, feeling this time that he did not use his full potential. With another result in the top ten, the fourth so far this season, the Catalan rider has 35 points in the championship and is in 12th place overall.
The next race of the MotoGP World Championship will be held in the Dutch city of Assen next weekend.
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