Jorge Martin landed his second career full-length MotoGP World Championship victory as he turned the tables on Pecco Bagnaia to win the German MotoGP at the Sachsenring.

Ensuring a double success this weekend following victory in the Sprint Race, Martin held his nerve with some robust defensive tactics in the closing stages as Bagnaia battled valiantly to get ahead of his Ducati stablemate.

However, a brief moment of contact - caused by Bagnaia nudging the rear of Martin's GP23 - coming into the final lap stuttered his momentum, the defending champion forced to settle for second in the dash to the line.

Leaving Germany with a maximum haul of points, the double win sees Martin assume control of second in the overall standings, 16 points behind Bagnaia

Another momentous day for Ducati, the Italian manufacturer's eight bikes were classified inside the top nine, with Jack Miller the only interloper in sixth.

>>> 2023 MotoGP World Championship standings <<<

Jorge Martin proves MotoGP title credentials

Having upstaged Bagnaia in Saturday's Sprint Race, the main feature would ultimately test whether Martin - so often quick during the early stages of races before fading in the latter half - could sustain his evident pace until the flag.

His quest began well with a strong getaway from sixth on the grid taking him up to fourth at the first turn, behind Jack Miller - getting the hole-shot again on the KTM - Bagnaia and Luca Marini.

Miller's hopes of an improvement on his third place finish in the Sprint Race, however, were soon dashed as he was swamped on the plunge down the Waterfall towards Turn 12, with Bagnaia, Martin and Marini sweeping through.

From here Bagnaia held station in the lead, pulling Martin along with him as Marini became preoccupied with defending his position from Brad Binder, the South African having progressed past his KTM team-mate to hold an early fourth.

With Martin pulling onto the rear of the scarlet GP23 coming into lap six, he'd draft by coming up to Turn 12 to move into the lead for the first time, the Spaniard proceeding to put the hammer down on the Pramac Ducati to eke out a small gap over Bagnaia, who in turn had shaken off the chasing pack.

However, at the half-way point the momentum began to shift back towards Bagnaia, the Italian's calm tyre preservation coinciding with Martin looking somewhat loose on the sister bike.

By Lap 17 of 30, Bagnaia was back on Martin's tail and after shadowing him initially, dealt his own Turn 12 overtake to move into the lead on Lap 21.

Undeterred, Martin regrouped to stick with Bagnaia, the Spaniard not bowing to reputation by matching Bagnaia for pace, so much so that he was back ahead into the lead, again with a pass into Turn 12 with seven laps remaining.

Bagnaia attempted to fight back initially before turning to tactics by dropping back a couple of tenths with three laps remaining, seemingly to cool tyres in preparation for another wave of attack.

However, while it was a strategy that paid dividends in his Jerez victory over Binder, Martin maintained a rock solid defence to keep Bagnaia at bay. With the Italian getting in close proximity to the Pramac bike in an effort to distract Martin, it instead led to clumsy contact coming out of the final corner, Bagnaia nudging Martin's Ducati to scrub off his momentum coming into the last lap.

Allowing Martin some breathing room for the final revolution, though Bagnaia was back on his tail by the final complex, it left him out of time to dive for the win into Turn 13. Closing on the short squirt to the finish line, Martin held on from Bagnaia by a mere 0.060s.

Coming almost two years on from his maiden victory in the Styrian MotoGP at the Red Bull Ring, while this is only Martin's second full length MotoGP victory, this combined with his Sprint Race success in Germany and France have seen him first across the line in three of the last six races.

They have served to negate costly retirements in Portugal and Texas, meaning he now heads up the chase to Bagnaia, with 16 points now splitting them, while Marco Bezzecchi - who finished fourth - slips 34 points adrift of the top spot.

Ducati rallies to a 1-2-3-4-5-7-8-9

Just as in Moto3 and Moto2, the MotoGP race would see the same faces on the podium as there was in Mugello a week earlier, with Johann Zarco completing a fruitful week with a back-to-back third place results.

It consolidated an excellent race for Ducati, even by its high recent standards, with all eight of its bikes breaking into the top ten to hold positions first down to ninth, the KTM in sixth the only exception.

On a weekend that saw Bezzecchi top more than one timesheet over a single lap, the Italian ultimately paid for qualifying on the third row of the grid as he made languid progress from the busy pack.

He eventually peaked in fourth, just ahead of VR46 Ducati team-mate Luca Marini, the pair of them helped along by a dramatic exit for Binder. The KTM rider had worked his way into third place but was being hunted down by Zarco when, with nine laps remaining, he ran wide at Turn 9 and was forced to bail off as the RC16 dug into the gravel.

His exit promoted Miller back into the top six to spare some blushes for the manufacturer, while Alex Marquez, Enea Bastianini and Fabio di Giannantonio rounded off the Ducati offensive in ninth.

Rounding out the top ten was Miguel Oliveira, the Portuguese rider scoring his best finish since Texas, ahead of Augusto Fernandez, who had the distinction of getting the better of both Yamahas, with Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo - a winner in Germany last season - labouring to 12th and 13th out of just 17 finishers.

Aleix Espargaro had been on course for a top ten but an erroneous tyre choice saw him slip down the order late on, which together with Maverick Vinales failing to finish with technical issues, left the Italian marque without any points from the full-length race.

The only Honda rider left on the grid after Marc Marquez's withdrawal - see full story - Takaaki Nakagami salvaged some points in 14th, with Raul Fernandez 15th for the final digit on the RNF Aprilia

2023 German MotoGP, Sachsenring | Race Results