MotoGP Honda at Germany One - Two

Unbeaten Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) and team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) dominated a unique MotoGP race at Sachsenring this afternoon, scoring their third one-two result of the 2014 season.

Marquez’s win was his ninth from nine races, a remarkable achievement from the 21-year-old former Moto2 and 125 World Champion. So far, only two riders have won more than nine consecutive premier-class wins: Giacomo Agostini (MV Agusta), who won all ten races of the 1968 500 season, and Mick Doohan (Repsol Honda), who won ten successive victories in the 1997 500 World Championship.

Today’s race started in confusing conditions after a light rain shower moments before the start, with most riders choosing to start the warm-up lap on rain tires, then realizing that slicks would be better for the race. They therefore had to swap to their ‘dry bikes’ and then start the race from pit lane once the rest of the riders had sped past into the first turn. Only nine riders started from their assigned positions on the grid.

Local hero Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) was the only rider on the first five rows to start from the grid and so took an easy lead during the first few laps. But all was not well for Bradl, who had started from the front row. His RC213V may have been fitted with slicks but it was running wet-weather suspension settings, so he was unable to use the full performance of his slick tires.

Meanwhile Marquez and Pedrosa – both recovering from big tumbles during practice – were charging through the mostly Open bikes that had also started from the main grid, until the two RC213V riders were into second and third places on lap four. At that point Bradl still had a healthy lead but it was quickly whittled away by the two Spaniards. Marquez assumed the lead at the end of lap six, with Pedrosa soon following him through into second.

Marquez and Pedrosa had the rest of the race between them, Marquez always leading, with the gap see-sawing this way and that. One lap Marquez would open the gap by a tenth, then the next Pedrosa would close it by a tenth, until one third-distance when Pedrosa made a couple of minor errors and slipped more than a second behind his team-mate.

Pedrosa’s seventh podium of the year promoted him to second overall, ahead of today’s fourth-place finisher Valentino Rossi (Yamaha). At the checkered flag the gap between Pedrosa and Marquez was 1.4 seconds, with Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) almost eight seconds back in third.

Try as he might, Bradl slipped further back as riders with the correct settings/tire combination came past him. He crossed the finish line in a disconsolate 16th place, no doubt hoping that Germany’s duel with Argentina in tonight’s World Cup final will turn out better.

Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V) was one of the last few riders to come past Bradl. The Spaniard ended the race in ninth place, just behind Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati).

Marc Marquez

Repsol Honda Team: 1st
“Before going out on track I thought it would be a similar race to the Assen, but in the end the surface dried out very quickly. I saw on the grid that Bradl had gone with the slick tire option and I really had my doubts, because the area around the back of the track was still wet. I finally decided to see what Dani and Valentino were going to do, as they are my main rivals in the championship and if you get it wrong in these races, you can lose a lot of points. That’s why I decided to copy their strategy. The race was nice, especially the first part which was when I enjoyed it the most!”

Dani Pedrosa

Repsol Honda Team: 2nd
“The start of the race today was a bit like Assen. Rainfall before the race meant that half the track was wet, and in the time we took to set up on the grid and do the warm-up lap it had been drying out. There was only one wet corner, but it was very wet. We had to change to the bike with slicks and almost all of the riders started from pit lane. We couldn’t fight for victory but we were very close, Marc was very fast today, too. Now we have the test at Brno and will try to find a few tenths somewhere, so that we can go faster and be even stronger at Indy.”Tag: Honda MotoGP Marc Marquez RC213V Dani Pedrosa Sachsenring Racing Mick Doohan Giacomo Agostini Winning Grand-Prix Championship