Jorge Martin fended off a charging Francesco Bagnaia to secure victory in a breathless German Grand Prix to close in on the Italian’s points lead.
The Pramac Ducati pilot made a flying start from sixth on the grid to insert himself into fourth by the time the field exited Turn 1, which soon became second after he repeated his stunning double-overtake that won him Saturday’s sprint race after leader Jack Miller made an error at Turn 11 and lost momentum – Martin also getting Marini in the same move at Turn 12.
The Spaniard wasn’t finished yet though and chased down new leader Bagnaia to snatch away the leadership at Turn 12 just a couple tours later before attempting to rocket away much as he had done 24 hours earlier.
Bagnaia kept well within range as the duo pulled away from KTM’s Brad Binder across the middling portion of the contest, the factory Ducati man pouring pressure on Martin before eventually firing past at Turn 12 with just under a third of the race remaining.
Martin wouldn’t go down without a fight though and remained firmly fixated on the rear of his fellow Ducati rider, finding a way back through to the lead with an identical pass to the one performed on him just a couple laps later – though things switched once again as Bagnaia attempted to repay the favour.
The reigning world champion crawled all over the rear of Martin over the final few laps before things came to a head at the final bend on the penultimate circulation where he clipped the rear tyre of a defending Martin, costing him precious time in his fight to score a second straight win.
He managed to get close enough for an attack in the final two corners of the race and attempting to undercut Martin once again as he went defensive into the final bend, though the leader ultimately got a good enough exit to just hang on to his second career grand prix success by an ultra-narrow margin of 0.064s.
Behind the leading pair Johann Zarco collected his third-successive third place finish after Binder crashed out at Turn 8 in the latter stages, the Frenchman leading home an all-Ducati top five as VR46 duo Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini followed in behind.
Miller ended being the best of the rest for KTM in sixth ahead of Alex Marquez for Gresini in seventh, while Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Gianantonio ensured all eight Ducati’s would feature within the top nine positions in eighth and ninth respectively.
Miguel Oliveira completed the top ten on his RNF-run Aprilia after getting the better of factory Aprilia man Aleix Espargaro towards the end, the Spaniard lacking rear grip after electing to go for the soft compound rear tyre unlike most of the field.
The only other rider to mirror Espargaro was Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who also struggled in the final stanza and dropped to 13th in the end behind GasGas’ Augusto Fernandez and team-mate Franco Morbidelli.
Takaaki Nakagami – who was the only Honda rider to start the German GP after Marc Marquez pulled out shortly prior to the encounter after fracturing a finger in morning warm-up – claimed 14th for LCR, while Raul Fernandez ripped away the final point from a fading Espargaro at the death.
Espargaro’s 16th place finish meant neither factory Aprilia scored a point at the Sachsenring after Maverick Vinales was forced to pull out after less than a thirds-distance due to a technical problem with his RS-GP.
Bagnaia’s championship advantage stands now at just 16 points over the resurgent Martin, with Bezzecchi having now fallen to 34 adrift of the series leader.
