Marc Marquez may have had to unfortunately withdraw from the 2023 MotoGP German Grand Prix, thereby failing to continue his decade-long undefeated streak at the Sachsenring. But we were treated to an absolute classic courtesy of Prima Pramac Racing Ducati’s Jorge Martin and the factory Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia duking it out for the win. In the end, it was the former who edged it by just 0.064 seconds.
How the race transpired
The intense racing action kicked off with Jack Miller’s KTM rocketing off into the lead but that was short-lived as the Ducati armada swamped him towards the end of the opening lap. While Bagnaia took the initial lead, Jorge Martin, like in the sprint race, quickly made his way through the field from sixth position and was already on the back of the factory Ducati rider.
He made the first move stick and was looking to dominate the race, but as we entered the second phase of the 30-lap race, Bagnaia began ramping up the pressure and with a little over 10 laps to go, retook the lead. But the battle was still not over as Martin swooped back past Bagnaia with mere centimetres separating them. It nearly came to a head when the two riders banged wheels on the penultimate lap which caused Bagnaia to lose some ground, but the reigning champion recovered all that time to still finish just six hundredths of a second behind Martin. Johann Zarco made it a second consecutive podium in the sister Prima Pramac Racing bike.
Francesco Bagnaia continues to lead the rider’s standings, but Jorge Martin’s win has thrust himself into the title race, now being just 16 points behind. MotoGP next heads to Assen for the Dutch Grand Prix, scheduled to run between June 23-25.
