Reigning MotoGP World Champion took only his second win of the 2015 season this afternoon at the Sachsenring, dominating the race in Germany to cross the line ahead of team-mate Dani Pedrosa in second.
Marquez, who switched to the hardest-available Bridgestone front tyre on the grid took the lead from Jorge Lorenzo on lap five and proceeded to check out as Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi scrapped it out for the podium spots.
Both the Movistar Yamahas opted for the aysmmetric fronts as Pedrosa copied his tea-mate and, as the laps counted down, Pedrosa was able to re-pass Rossi for second place as his fuel load came down and pull a gap of three seconds while Lorenzo faded away.
Lorenzo has now slipped a further three points behind The Doctor while Marquez has pulled back a handful but is still more than two race wins behind the nine-time world champion.
As in Assen, Andrea Iannone had another lonely race but this time for fifth place while Britain’s Bradley Smith recovered from another average qualifying performance to finish as top satellite rider in sixth place. He now heads to Japan for another Suzuka Eight-Hours test.
Cal Crutchlow came through from an equally-disappointing grid slot to finish in seventh place but he remained on the medium front tyre instead of the hard option the works Hondas chose. The LCR man didn’t have the pace to catch Smith so was second British rider home.
Pol Espargaro, who shares the Monster Yamaha garage with Smith, fought his way back from a bad start to finish in eighth place, but having to dice with the soft-tyred Pramac Ducati of Danilo Petrucci.
Ecstar Suzuki teamsters Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales were stuck together for most of the race with the elder Spaniard winning out while a bright start from Yonny Hernandez didn’t last and he slipped back to 12th.
Eugene Laverty finished just outside the points in 17th place while brother Michael was 20th. Scott Redding’s race last just 12 corners as he lost the front in turn 13 on lap one.
MotoGP World Standing after nine races
1 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha ITA 179
2 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha SPA 166
3 Andrea IANNONE Ducati ITA 118
4 Marc MARQUEZ Honda SPA 114
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati ITA 87
6 Bradley SMITH Yamaha GBR 87
7 Dani PEDROSA Honda SPA 67
8 Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda GBR 66
9 Pol ESPARGARO Yamaha SPA 64
10 Maverick VIÑALES Suzuki SPA 57
11 Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati ITA 51
12 Aleix ESPARGARO Suzuki SPA 44
13 Yonny HERNANDEZ Ducati COL 32
14 Scott REDDING Honda GBR 30
15 Hector BARBERA Ducati SPA 19
16 Loris BAZ Yamaha Forward FRA 14
17 Alvaro BAUTISTA Aprilia SPA 13
18 Jack MILLER Honda AUS 12
19 Stefan BRADL Yamaha Forward GER 9
20 Michele PIRRO Ducati ITA 8
21 Nicky HAYDEN Honda USA 8
22 Eugene LAVERTY Honda IRL 7
23 Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda JPN 5
24 Mike DI MEGLIO Ducati FRA 2
25 Alex DE ANGELIS ART RSM 1
