'Viva Sachsenring!' Marquez hails ninth win in Germany
World champion Marc Marquez cruised to his ninth consecutive German Grand Prix win to extend his MotoGP lead at the Sachsenring circuit on Sunday. Honda's Spanish rider has won in the top category for the last six years and before that three times in the lower classes. "Nine victories in a row here is incredible," Marquez said. "Viva the Sachsenring!" He finished in 41 minutes 5.019 seconds, 2.196 seconds ahead of Valentino Rossi. The Italian veteran's Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales was 2.776sec further back in third. Marquez now has 165 points in the MotoGP championship standings, 46 ahead of Rossi and 56 more than Vinales. Starting from pole, as he has every year during his streak at the German circuit, Marquez immediately lost a couple of places as compatriot Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) seized the lead. Marquez recovered and caught Lorenzo but was content to stalk the Ducati for a while on the short and twisty Sachsenring circuit which puts a premium on tyres. As the leader began to lose grip, Marquez took the lead with 17 laps to go, but continued to ride conservatively, allowing Rossi to trim the gap. With 10 laps left, Marquez accelerated away. "When I see the time is 0.6, I think now is the time to push," Marquez said. Rossi insisted Yamaha had done well. "Sachsenring is normally difficult for us. We are very happy to make a double podium." While Ducatis, who had shone in qualifying, occupied the four places below the podium, the result was in some ways disappointing for the Italian manufacturer on a circuit where it has won only one victory in two decades (Australian Casey Stoner won in 2008). Danilo Petrucci finished fourth on the Ducati Pramac. Both were ahead of the two factory Ducatis which struggled as the race progressed, with Lorenzo in sixth and Italian Andrea Dovizioso in seventh. Frenchman Johan Zarco (Yamaha), who has been struggling after a crash at Le Mans in May, recovered from his worst qualifying of the season to finish seventh but still slipped further down the driver standings. Earlier, South African Brad Binder (KTM) won his first Moto2 Grand Prix ahead of Spain's Joan Mir and his Kalex teammate Luca Marini. Binder finished 0.779 seconds ahead of Mir who held off Marini, Valentino Rossi's half brother, by 0.154 seconds. In Moto3, Jorge Martin (Honda) increased his slim championship lead as he finished comfortably ahead of his nearest challenger in the standings, Italian Marco Bezzecchi (KTM), with Scot John McPhee (KTM), third. Martin's only anxious moment came when team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio touched his rear wheel, but the Spaniard managed to keep his balance while the Italian slid off. "My team-mate was very aggressive, I don't know why. I thought I was going to crash," Martin said. The next leg of the world championship is on August 5 at the Czech Grand Prix on Brno's city circuit. Marc Marquez climbed into the crowd to celebrate with fans after a ninth straight victory at the Sachsenring. Moto3 Honda rider Fabio Di Giannantonio fell after running into the back of teammate Jorge Martin who stayed upright and won.
