Not yet completely recovered from his latest operations on his right shoulder, the reigning world champion outclassed the competition and had a perfect day on the German track, which allowed him to grab valuable points with a view to retaining his crown.
Starting from pole, the reigning world champion led the race from start to finish and was ahead, as in qualifying, of his younger brother Alex Marquez (Gresini) and the Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46).
Even if he did not manage to really distance his opponents, notably his brother, returning to his best level only a few weeks after a terrible accident, Marc Marquez never trembled and achieved the 19th success of his career in sprinting, a record.
“Alex pushed very hard, he was very close in the last laps. I tried to keep a constant pace and I thought he was going to catch up with me. We’ll see if we can repeat that for the Grand Prix tomorrow (Sunday),” said the seven-time MotoGP world champion.
Nicknamed “The King of the Ring”, Marc Marquez confirmed that he was in his garden on the German track where he will aim for a 13th success on Sunday, the 10th in MotoGP, which would allow him to equal two records held by Italian legend Giacomo Agostini, namely the number of victories in the same event (13) and the number of successes on the same circuit in the premier category (10).
Above all, success would allow him to put pressure on his opponents in the title race. Relegated to more than 100 points behind the then leader, the Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) in mid-May, Marquez returned to just 32 lengths behind his compatriot Jorge Martin (Aprilia), current leader, but only sixth on Saturday and who sees the threat becoming clearer.
On Saturday, the black streak continued for Bezzecchi, who had only scored 14 points over the last three weekends, who was again the victim of a spectacular fall on Saturday and who fractured his left collarbone.
Two weeks after falling at nearly 200 km/h in the Netherlands without injury, the Transalpine this time lost his rear at more than 130 km/h and went over his handlebars (highside) before falling heavily on the track then bouncing several times in the gravel.
“After the fall, Marco Bezzecchi was taken to the circuit medical center where he had an X-ray which revealed a complete and displaced fracture of the left clavicle. This type of fracture requires surgical intervention to ensure optimal healing,” Aprilia wrote in a statement.
In difficulty on Friday, Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) bounced back well on Saturday. He first took second place in Q1, the first part of qualifying, to secure his ticket for Q2 where he set a fine sixth time.
Riding a poorly performing motorcycle, the 2021 world champion managed to snatch the point from ninth place during the sprint and will aim for a new Top 10 on Sunday.
