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MotoGP Germany: Marquez sweeps to victory with Crutchlow second

Marc Marquez and his Repsol Honda team timed a change from wets to slicks at a drying Sachsenring today to perfection which enabled the former champion to take a ten-second victory as Britain’s Cal Crutchlow put in a dogged race to bag his second podium for the LCR squad..

Marquez took a gamble on dodging the intermediate option as a dry line appeared at the German circuit, pitting with 14 laps to go and then proceeded to lap seven seconds faster than the opposition and took the lead from Jack Miller with six left to .

The youngter extend his championship lead over Jorge Lorenzo as the reigning champion could only muster a single point while Valentino Rossi pitted way to late and then didn’t get down to a decent laptime out of the pits and faded to eighth. The upside for The Doctor is he closes Lorenzo down in the title chase.

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Andrea Dovioso, who led for a majority of the race, pitted at the same time as Rossi and Crutchlow but the Briton had enough dry pace - as he said yesterday - to ride away from the works Ducati man. Both had to pass Scott Redding to take the podium slots.

Redding got a shocking start but quickly picked his way through the pack in the wet. The Pramac Ducati man pitted with 12 laps to go but his team selected intermediates - which Redding said afterwards was a mistake - and Dovizoso removed him from podium contention on the last lap.

Away from the line, Marquez got the holeshot with Rossi, Danilo Petrucci, Dovizioso and Hector Barbera in row but The Doctor took only two corners to snatch the lead while Dovizioso passed Petrucci and Marquez to move into second in short order.

Petrucci was not about to lose the tow and passed Marquez on lap two but the Honda man bit straight back. However, the Pramac man was not to be denied and he went back into third just before Dovizioso passed Rossi for the lead and then Petrucci followed him two corners later.

With four laps gone, Petrucci went into the lead and began to pull away while Jack Miller shuffled Marquez back to fifth place and then Barbera also passed the ex-champion.

But it was disaster for Petrucci with ten laps gone as he lost the front into Omega which saw the end of his challenge while Marquez ran into the gravel at turn eight, the scene of his momumental crash in morning warm-up where he went over the highside of his RC213V when the rear tyre touched a while line.

As Petrucci cruised into pitlane with his bike on fire, Dovizoso tried to make a break and his team-mate Andrea Iannone pitted in but went out with intermediates - which proved to be the wrong choice. Marquez pitted alongside Pol Espargaro but the Monster Yamaha man also went out on intermediates and lasted two corners before he slid off.

Barbera had passed Rossi for second place as The Doctor tried to manage his tyres but as Dovizioso made a gap, Rossi went back in front of the Avintia Ducati rider and Crutchlow caught and passed Miller for fourth place.

Rossi’s team put out a board calling him to pit with 12 laps to go but, as in Misano, Rossi ignored it much to the chagrin of the mechanics who began to huff and flap their arms in pitlane. With seven to go, Rossi, Dovizioso and Crutchlow all pitted as Miller took the lead with Marquez now in second and Redding third.

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Marquez took the lead with six left and was completely unchallenged. Miller remained in second but inexplicably pitted which left Redding in third.

As Dovizioso. Rossi and Crutchlow exited pitlane, The Doctor didn’t go with the other two and was caught napping as Miller put in a ferocious out-lap on slicks to get himself back into contention. Crutchlow set the fastest lap of the race - a 1’25.019 - on the last as he took second with a two-second advantage over Dovizioso.

Iannone followed Redding home in fifth while Dani Pedrosa had quietly got himself into the mix and finished in sixth, just ahead of Miller. Rossi beat Barbera to eighth with Alvaro Bautista rounding out the top ten.

Eugene Laverty bagged a brilliant 11th place ahead of the two Suzukis with Bradley Smith coming back from dead last finish in 13th.

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