Marc Marquez battled through from sixth on the opening lap to seal a comeback victory in the German MotoGP Sprint.
The Spaniard overtook Marco Bezzecchi on the final lap of the race to take a 10th Sprint win of 2025 despite an error at the first corner.
The wet conditions made it difficult for the field to decide which tyre to choose, with the majority of the grid electing for the soft rear tyre, while Johann Zarco and Luca Marini chose the unfavoured medium.
Marquez made the best start and looked to hold his lead down into the first corner, but ran wide and dropped back down to sixth.
Marco Bezzecchi inherited the lead after Marquez’s error as Franco Morbidelli got the launch from fourth on the grid to take second.
Fabio Quartararo also made a good start from the third row of the grid, and carved his way past Marquez into third.
Marquez immediately made progress by overtaking Johann Zarco to get back into fifth place, before battling with Fabio Di Giannantonio for fourth.
The Italian pulled an aggressive move to remain ahead of the Spanish rider as they continued fighting.
Morbidelli had made good progress but suffered a violent crash at Turn 8 as he exited the race.
Following his team-mate’s woes, Di Giannantonio surrendered third to Marquez at the start of the fifth lap, as Pedro Acosta followed his compatriot through to demote the VR46 rider to fifth.
The race stabilised around the seventh lap, with Marquez setting the fastest lap as he attempted to close the two-second gap to Quartararo in second.
The Spanish rider was lapping half a second faster than the Frenchman as he continued to close the gap.
Marquez then made his move on Lap 9 as he forced himself and Quartararo wide at the first corner, but managed to make the move stick.
Bezzecchi set his fastest lap of the race, but Marquez continued to close the gap to the leader by using his superior pace around the circuit.
As the pair reached the final lap of the race, Marquez used the slipstream to draw level with Bezzecchi going into Turn 1.
The Spanish rider ran wide, but managed to hang on around the outside as he took the lead for the first time in the race.
Bezzecchi tried to force a move to regain the lead, but Marquez managed to pull a gap out front to remove any chance of an overtake.
The eight-time World Champion crossed the line to take the Sprint victory by almost a second after battling back through the order.
Bezzecchi was forced to settle for second place as Quartararo completed the podium in third.
Di Giannantonio pressured the Frenchman but finished fourth, as Jack Miller rounded out the top five.
Brad Binder was sixth ahead of Johann Zarco, who struggled on the medium rear tyre in seventh.
Alex Marquez battled through a hand injury to finish eighth, as Pedro Acosta completed the Sprint points finishers in ninth.
Fermin Aldeguer completed the top 10 after a battle with Acosta on the final laps of the race, while Miguel Oliveira was 11th.
Francesco Bagnaia struggled in the wet conditions and took the flag in 12th ahead of Raul Fernandez in 13th.
Joan Mir crossed the line in 14th, with former team-mate Alex Rins trailing behind in 15th.
Luca Marini was 16th on his first competitive start after injury during the Suzuka 8hr practice, while Ai Ogura finished 17th.
Lorenzo Savadori completed the finishers in 18th, as Morbidelli was the sole retirement of the Sprint.
Maverick Vinales suffered a dislocated shoulder following his qualifying crash and was declared unfit for the remainder of the weekend.
