MotoGP Germany, Race: Bagnaia Profits From Martin’s Mistake for Fourth Straight Win
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Alex Whitworth
July 7, 2024
MotoGP Germany marks the final round of the first half of the 2024 season, with the summer break beginning on Monday. After Maverick Vinales was fastest on Friday, championship leader Jorge Martin set pole position on Saturday, before converting that to a victory in the Sprint.
Race
Francesco Bagnaia took victory in a closely fought German Grand Prix, after Jorge Martin crashed out of the lead.
Bagnaia took the lead early on, passing Raul Fernandez for third at the start, Miguel Oliveira for second at turn 13 on the first lap, and then Martin for the lead, again at turn 13, on lap two.
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It didn’t last long, though, as Martin reclaimed the lead at the first turn on lap seven. Then, Franco Morbidelli, who was in third place after the strongest start to a race of his season, passed for second at turn one on lap nine.
Bagnaia was then under pressure from Alex Marquez for a few laps, but around the half-distance mark he began to up his pace. On lap 15, he passed Morbidelli to reclaim second, and then he set his sights on Martin.
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Throughout the second half of the race, Martin and Bagnaia were essentially blow-for-blow, able to almost precisely match each other’s lap times on each tour of the Sachsenring in the low-1:23s. A 1:20.9 from Martin on lap 23 seemed to tip the tide in his favour, but Bagnaia kept up the pressure and had reduced the gap down to half-a-second by the penultimate lap.
At that point, Martin crashed out at the first turn, in similar but not identical circumstances to the way he crashed from the lead in the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix back at the end of April.
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It was a strong recovery from Marquez having qualified only 13th, but he lost more points in the championship.
Alex Marquez completed yet another all-Ducati podium (the sixth in succession) and made it a Gresini 2-3 for his first rostrum of the season.
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Morbidelli battled late on with Bastianini for fourth, but eventually lost out to the factory Ducati rider, Morbidelli himself taking fifth.
Miguel Oliveira was the best non-Ducati in sixth, 10 seconds off the win. Pedro Acosta took seventh, ahead of Marco Bezzecchi in eighth, while Brad Binder and Raul Fernandez completed the top 10.
Post-race 16-second penalties were awarded to Augusto Fernandez, Johann Zarco, and Stefan Bradl for failing to meet the minimum tyre pressure rule.
2024 MotoGP German Grand Prix | Sachsenring | Grand Prix Result | Rd 9/20
Pos Rider Nat. MotoGP Team MotoGP Bike Timing
1 Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati GP24 WIN
2 Marc Marquez ESP Gresini Racing Ducati GP23 3.804
3 Alex Marquez ESP Gresini Racing Ducati GP23 4.334
4 Enea Bastianini ITA Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati GP24 5.317
5 Franco Morbidelli ITA Pramac Racing Ducati GP24 5.557
6 Miguel Oliveira POR Trackhouse Racing Aprilia RS-GP 10.481
7 Pedro Acosta ESP Red Bull GasGas Tech3 KTM RC16 14.746
8 Marco Bezzecchi ITA Pertamina Enduro VR46 Ducati GP23 14.930
9 Brad Binder RSA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM RC16 15.084
10 Raul Fernandez ESP Trackhouse Racing Aprilia RS-GP 16.384
11 Fabio Quartararo FRA Monster Energy Yamaha Yamaha YZR-M1 17.235
12 Maverick Vinales ESP Aprilia Racing Aprila RS-GP 18.865
13 Jack Miller AUS Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM RC16 25.425
14 Takaaki Nakagami JAP Idemitsu Honda LCR Honda RC213V 25.817
15 Luca Marini ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda RC213V 25.854
16 Augusto Fernandez ESP Red Bull GasGas Tech3 KTM RC16 41.495
17 Johann Zarco FRA Castrol Honda LCR Honda RC213V 41.952
18 Joan Mir ESP Repsol Honda Team Honda RC213V 43.145
19 Remy Gardner AUS Monster Energy Yamaha Yamaha YZR-M1 50.115
20 Stefan Bradl GER Team HRC Honda RC213V 59.047
DNF Jorge Martin ESP Prima Pramac Racing Ducati GP24 DNF
DNF Fabio Di Giannantonio ITA Pertamina Enduro VR46 Ducati GP23 DNF
Sprint
Jorge Martin leads 2024 MotoGP German Grand Prix Sprint. Credit: Gold and Goose.
Jorge Martin took a commanding, if not dominant, victory in the MotoGP Sprint at the Sachsenring, after a four-way fight for the win.
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In fairness, calling it a ‘fight’ between the top four riders might be a stretch, but there were four riders who were all in contention to win until the final lap, more or less.
Martin lost the lead from the beginning when he ran wide with Miguel Oliveira at the first turn, allowing Francesco Bagnaia to take the holeshot. Bagnaia didn’t have the speed, though, and soon after Martin cleared Oliveira he made his way through Bagnaia. From there, he wasn’t headed and eventually took his first victory since the French Grand Prix by 0.676 seconds.
Soon after Martin passed Bagnaia, Oliveira did, too. Like versus Martin, Bagnaia couldn’t respond. It didn’t get any worse for Bagnaia, though, as behind him was his teammate, Enea Bastianini, who found it equally difficult to pass Bagn
aia as the reigning champion found it to reclaim second from Oliveira.
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