Sachsenring MotoGP: Marquez dominates for 10th German GP win

Marquez had a sluggish getaway from pole and Fabio Quartararo was in front of him as they entered Turn 1, but the Honda rider outbraked Quartararo on the outside line to lead.

Quartararo lost several places in the first couple of corners and was running only sixth when he crashed out at Turn 3 next time around while trying to pass Ducati's Danilo Petrucci.

Marquez found himself under severe pressure by Maverick Vinales instead in the opening couple of laps, but the Yamaha man soon started to drop off and was overtaken by Rins.

But Rins couldn't stay close to Marquez either, as the championship leader extended his lead to the three-second mark.

With Marquez maintaining the gap, Rins then made a mistake and crashed at Turn 11, retiring for the second race in a row.

Marquez's lead became five seconds after that and he cruised to the finish to score his fifth win of the season by 4.5s and end the first half of the season with a 58-point advantage.

Vinales was closely followed by Cal Crutchlow for the majority of the race but the Briton couldn't find a way past, and the Yamaha rider thus secured second place.

Crutchlow still scored his first podium since the Qatar season opener despite nursing a fractured right knee.

Fourth place was hotly contested among the three Ducatis of Andrea Dovizioso, Petrucci and Jack Miller.

Petrucci was in front for most of the race but Dovizioso passed him with three laps to go, forcing his teammate wide and allowing Miller through as well.

But Petrucci then re-passed Miller and also Dovizioso to finish fourth, 0.062s ahead of his teammate.

Miller finished sixth, with Joan Mir taking seventh. The Suzuki man had kicked off a late-race charge, but couldn't make his way past the Ducatis in the end.

Valentino Rossi couldn't make a lot of progress from 11th on the grid and settled for eighth ahead of fellow Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli.

Aleix Espargaro threw away a top 10 result with a late crash at Turn 1, allowing Stefan Bradl, Jorge Lorenzo's replacement, to finish 10th in his home race.

KTM's Johann Zarco and Miguel Oliveira both fell at Turn 3 early on.

Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	30
2	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	30	4.587
3	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	30	7.741
4	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	30	16.577
5	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	30	16.669
6	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	30	16.836
7	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	30	17.156
8	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	30	19.110
9	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	30	20.634
10	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	30	22.708
11	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	30	26.345
12	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	30	26.574
13	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	30	32.753
14	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	30	32.925
15	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	30	37.934
16	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	30	41.615
17	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	30	56.189
18	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	30	57.377
	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	28	2 Laps
	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	18	12 Laps
	5	Johann Zarco	KTM	2	28 Laps
	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	1	29 Laps
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