Bridgestone: Marquez marches to the top of the standings after stunning Sachsenring victory

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez moved back to the top of the MotoGP™ points standings after a dominating performance at the German Grand Prix netted him his second victory of the year.

Starting on pole position, Marquez had a poor start and circulated in fourth position before beginning his charge through the front-runners on the third lap. After seizing the lead from LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl on lap six, Marquez controlled the race perfectly to cross the finish line 1.559 seconds ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow, who again braved injury for a stunning second place. Taking the final place on the rostrum was Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi who continued the strong form he showed in Assen. Following his best ever MotoGP™ qualifying performance, Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro was among the top three riders early in the race and ultimately finished in eighth position to once again be the highest placed CRT rider.

Track temperatures today reached a peak of 39°C at the start of the race before dropping slightly towards the end of the thirty-lap contest. With Sachsenring requiring a lot of front-end grip in cool conditions, some riders considered using the soft compound front slick for the race.

However track temperatures rose in the afternoon, so only four riders ended up selecting this option with the rest of the field choosing the hard compound front. With little time to test the harder rear slick compounds over the race weekend due to the cool morning sessions, most riders chose the well-tested softer rear slick options for the race with only two riders opting for the harder rear slick.

Sachsenring is one of the most severe circuits on rear tyres as it features corners where riders attain high lean angles for long periods. Although almost all riders selected the less durable softer rear slick options, no unusual wear was reported during and performance over the race distance was consistent.

Marquez now sits on 138 points to lead his teammate Dani Pedrosa in the MotoGP™ championship standings by two points. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo is a further nine points adrift and third place in the rankings

Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department: “Today’s race was run at a very fast pace and Marc did a fantastic job for his second win of the year so well done to him and Honda. A few different riders led the race during the early stages of the race to the delight of the fans and the pace was so quick that a new race time record was set, beating the old record from 2009 by seven seconds.

It is a shame that Jorge, Dani and Andrea could not take part in the race due to injury, I wish them all a quick recovery and hope we can welcome back a full grid of riders at Laguna Seca next weekend.”

Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department: “Today was a very good race and the quick pace we saw shows that most of the teams managed to find a bike setup that got the best performance out of the tyres. Tyre performance over the race distance was excellent with the consistent lap times showing that the decrease in grip level was quite predictable.

Sachsenring is one of the most technical circuits on the calendar and I’m happy that after a difficult start to the weekend that the riders, teams and Bridgestone technicians were able to work together to find a solution to enable the riders to negotiate this challenging circuit both quickly and safely.”

Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda – Race Winner: “I didn’t expect to lead the championship after eight races and although the circumstances for this race were a bit special without Dani and Jorge here, it was important to take the twenty-five points for the championship . It’s my second victory in MotoGP and today was a bit different as I led the race and managed the gap at the front and while it was a great experience, I prefer races with a few riders fighting at the front but again I learned a lot today.”

Bridgestone Motorsport