Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez has taken his second MotoGP victory of the season this afternoon at the Sachsenring taking the lead on lap six and then riding away but he was kept honest by Britain's Cal Crutchlow who bagged his second career runner-up spot.
Marquez went past Bradl for the lead as Crutchlow has to shut off to avoid a collision with the Spaniard. Both he and Valentino Rossi had to contend with LCR Honda's Bradl, who held them up for enough laps to allow Marquez to get away, before The Doctor made his move to go second with 22 laps remaining.
Crutchlow followed him through a lap later when the German briefly lost the front into the last corner and ran wide. The Monster Yamaha man then set about chasing down his boyhood hero, carrying more corner speed through the turn where he crashed yesterday to go past the factory Yamaha man on the brakes at the bottom of the waterfall.
Marquez had opened a 2.5s lead but Crutchlow started to claw it in and got it down to just 1.4s with a handful of laps to go but Marquez had the win under control and crossed the line with 1.5s to spare and reclaimed the championship lead by two points with the absence of both Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, who are injured.
Rossi, meanwhile, had a lonely race for the third podium spot, finishing eight seconds behind Marquez while Bradl couldn't quite hold it together for his first podium and took another fourth in front of his home crowd.
Bradley Smith bagged his best-ever result with a sixth place behind Alvaro Bautista while Andrea Dovizioso had to fend off a challenge from CRT rider Aleix Espargaro, who used the advantage of the softer rear tyre to mix it with the top men at the start of the race.
Nicky Hayden and Michele Pirro rounded out the top ten with Hector Barbera and Randy De Puniet completing the CRT podium. Michael Laverty will be disappointed with his result, converting his best ever qualifying into a 16th place finish, just outside the points.
