Outwardly, Pecco Bagnaia is the mildest of characters in the MotoGP paddock; he doesn’t look like he’d say boo! to a goose but those in the know, tell us of a rider who is afraid of nothing and who will fight tooth and nail against the best of them. Perhaps he is a little more calculating in his racing approach, so you rarely see fireworks in his riding, but the steel is there nonetheless.
After three victories on the trot, Bagnaia seemingly had Jorge Martin on the ropes, only for Martin to pull a stunning Sprint race victory out of the hat in Germany, soaking up pressure from Bagnaia the whole way.
Then, in the Main race, Martin once again looked as if he had it covered only to throw an almost certain race win away starting the penultimate lap, not only handing Bagnaia the win but also the championship lead. You just can’t give a rider like Bagnaia that kind of get-out-of-jail-free card; two MotoGP titles in two years, both won the hard way, is a testament to that. If Martin loses out yet again to Bagnaia, he has only himself to blame.
That’s not to say that Bagnaia will only win because of Martin’s misfortune; to capitalise on misfortune, you have to be in the right place to benefit from it and Bagnaia always seems to be in the right place.
After three rather processional races, the Sachsenring was a return to some great racing. Marc Marquez is acknowledged as the master of the circuit, with 11 victories over 14 years of racing. However, his hopes of repeating that success and gaining his first victory on a Ducati were dealt two blows during practice and qualifying.
First, there was a huge crash during practice that broke a finger and bruised several ribs; enough to put mere mortals into bed for a few days but MotoGP riders are a different breed. Then Marquez was badly baulked on his last run in Q1, meaning he would start in 13th. Surely a podium let alone a victory would be impossible from there?
The Aprilias were looking very fast, although Aleix Espargaro would take no part in the weekend’s proceedings, being ruled out by injury sustained in Assen. Maverick Viñales was fast but also crashed heavily in Germany, leaving him wheezing on all fours at the side of the track.
While Martin took pole, it was the two Trackhouse Racing Aprilias that really set pulses racing with second and third on the grid. Oliveira was able to convert that into a podium finish which was a joy to see and, not inconsequentially, protected Martin from Bagnaia, who lost points to his championship rival at the head of the table by finishing third and not second. In the circumstances, sixth place for Marquez was impressive, after a long tussle with Viñales.
The Main race started in a similar fashion, with Martin and Bagnaia duking it out at the front but what was even more heartening was the sight of Franco Morbidelli giving it horns at the sharp end, looking like he might overtake teammate Martin for second and then taking that spot from Bagnaia after he in turn had been relegated from the lead by Martin. Morbidelli then looked as if he was going to challenge Martin for the lead. Where did this come from? Not unwelcome, of course, but we haven’t seen this version of Morbidelli for a long time.
Inevitably, perhaps, Morbidelli started fading backwards to fight with Bastiannini, Bagnaia moving into second while Alex Marquez was running a strong third. Incredibly, however, Marc Marquez was up to fifth and harrying Morbidelli. Even a near-highside after contact with the Pramac rider couldn’t dent Marquez’ confidence and his charge continued unabated as he passed his brother for third. This would be crucial as, beginning the penultimate lap, Martin threw it all away with a devastating mistake that looked innocuous – and that, thankfully, he walked away from – but which had huge consequences in terms of the championship as Bagnaia catapulted to the head of the points table. As mentioned at the beginning of this piece, you just can’t give Bagnaia that kind of get-out-of-jail-free card because he’ll punish you for it.
That also meant that Marc Marquez finished an incredible second, while his brother and teammate rounded out the podium. It was a brilliant finish for the Gresini team and the first time since 1997 that brothers have shared the podium.
There is no doubt that the title fight is once again between Martin and Bagnaia, although Marc Marquez or Enea Bastiannini could yet spring a surprise or two; a victory for either while the top two fail to finish would close up the gap nicely but Bagnaia is simply looking too strong at the moment for a third consecutive championship to be ruled out. Martin will have something to say about it, of course, and misfortune for Bagnaia can’t be ruled out, bringing Martin back into it, but only if he stops making mistakes himself.
What of the rest of the grid? KTM’s progress seems to have stalled somewhat, with even Pedro Acosta failing to make any headlines, while Brad Binder and Jack Miller appear to be mired in the midfield.
Fabio Quartararo refuses to give up and makes the Yamaha look better than it is while none of the Honda riders appear to be able to make the RC213V look like anything other than a dog. Put it this way, when Luca Marini celebrates his first point of the season and that only because of tyre pressure penalties for three riders ahead of him, then you know things can’t get much worse. Honda, more than any other team, must be desperate for the new rules to come in, in 2027.
For once, there was absolutely nothing to report on the silly-season shenanigans. The most interesting was a rumour that Lewis Hamilton was about to buy into Gresini racing and that Valentino Rossi and his partner are expecting a second baby! Hardly the stuff of intrigue…
There’s now a month’s break until the British GP at Silverstone, the circuit that also this weekend, saw an emotional victory for Lewis Hamilton in front of his home crowd (for the ninth time!). It was a great race and we can only hope that we get a similar MotoGP race and second half of the season, with Martin and Bagnaia keeping each other on their toes and neither one getting too far ahead – or behind – so we get another nail-biting end to the season.
