The 2024 German GP has brought the first half of the season to a close. The summer break is here and we are heading into it with two sides of the coin. The one up is Pecco Bagnaia, who has completed his siege of the MotoGP lead on the German track by chaining together his fourth consecutive Grand Prix victory. The other down is undoubtedly Jorge Martín, who after withstanding the pressure throughout the race, of being the fastest rider of the weekend, crashed with two laps to go.
This concatenation of events (Martín’s fall and Bagnaia’s victory) has brought Pecco to the front of the general classification, perhaps in the most unexpected way. Jorge has been stronger and faster all weekend, so much so that he seemed to have the victory in his pocket even though Pecco was not willing to give up an inch. In fact, the battle between the two at a distance has once again been a sign of the level that both are having this season.
NOOOO!!! IT CAN’T BE! JORGE MARTIN FALLS!
When he was leading, two laps from the end… Jorge Martín crashes and loses the lead in the World Championship 😰#GermanGP 🇩🇪 #MotoGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/tFPEAfDl4Y
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) July 7, 2024
However, the level that both have reached is not without risks and forcing their rivals means that they themselves have to push themselves to the maximum in races that are being the fastest in history. And in the 2024 German GP, they have lapped more than 12 seconds faster than in 2023, thanks to the pace set by Martín and which Bagnaia knew how to keep up with.
Now, after nine Grands Prix and with 11 left once the holiday period is over, the championship will start practically from scratch and Bagnaia is 10 points ahead of Martín in the provisional classification.
🗣️ @88jorgemartinsincere after falling while leading at Sachsenring
“It hurt me more than ever. It was an important day in my career, it will mark a before and after”#GermanGP 🇩🇪 #MotoGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/X2BxTGOJli
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) July 7, 2024
But there was much more to Sachsenring than the fight for victory, and one of them was Marc Márquez’s performance. From a heavy fall on Friday to finishing second after a great comeback on Sunday, and that despite the pain. It is clear that Marc feels comfortable at Sachsenring and that he did not suffer the fall that made him go through Q1, which he could not overcome and forced him to start thirteenth.
In the race, he made up ground step by step and even after a clash with Franco Morbidelli in which he was on the verge of falling, the windshield of his Ducati broke and the airbag was deployed, he managed to recover to catch his brother Alex Marquez and overtake him to take a creditable second place. With Alex third, the Marquez brothers made history by being the first in MotoGP to achieve this. The previous ones were the Aoki brothers, in 500 in the 1997 season.
WHAT A HIT! 😰😱
Franco Morbidelli collided with Marc Márquez, who ended up with a broken windscreen and an inflated airbag… HE MIRACULOUSLY SAVED HIS FACE!#GermanGP 🇩🇪 #MotoGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/kt8CfoWrUT
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) July 7, 2024
Ducati’s dominance was evident at all times at the 2024 German GP
What we also saw at Sachsering was that Ducati’s dominance continued, with only Miguel Ángel Oliveira and Raúl Fernández able to fight against the Ducati riders even in qualifying. In the race they were unable to do much against them and the top five, with Bastianini fourth and Morbidelli fifth, went to Ducati.
Oliveira finished sixth, with Pedro Acosta, who is not as prominent as he was at the start of the session, but continues to consolidate his learning and is the best KTM-GASGAS bike, seventh. Bezzechi, Binder and Raúl Fernández himself completed the top 10.
A top 10 where we did not see any Japanese bikes again, and only Quartararo with the Yamaha had a chance of sneaking in, finishing eleventh and less than a second behind. The races go by and the concessions made do not seem to yield results, so the two big Japanese factories will have to continue working to return to the place from which they should never have disappeared: the fight for victory.
