Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez cruised to a flag-to-flag Sprint race victory at the Sachsenring.
The Spaniard led every single lap on his way to claim another win at one of his most successful circuits, edging out Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio.
The Marquez brothers, Marc and Alex, kept hold of the top two positions into Turn 1, followed by Ogura, who gained multiple positions from his starting position.
Di Giannantonio aggressively overtook Ogura to snatch third at the fast Turn 7, reclaiming his qualifying position at the first possible opportunity.
The three Ducati teams occupied the podium positions by Lap 3, followed by the Trackhouse duo and championship leader Jorge Martin.
Very few overtakes occurred at the front, though Alex, in certain sectors on track, implied he might have an edge.
Marc Marquez’s positioning through the corners allowed him to manage his pace comfortably, and he wasn’t challenged by his brother or VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio.
On Lap 7, the first retirement of the race came from the other side of the VR46 garage, as Franco Morbidelli crashed at Turn 1.
As the laps went by, Marc Marquez continued to repeatedly manage ahead of Alex, but the duo established a 0.9s lead over Di Giannantonio.
However, the Roman rider found an edge to close to the back of Alex Marquez, though there was no realistic overtaking opportunity.
Marquez rounded off a perfect Saturday by taking pole position and leading every lap in the 15-lap Sprint race.
His younger brother finished only a few tenths behind, but made no lunge to try and claim victory.
Di Giannantonio finished on the rostrum to make it a Ducati 1-2-3, with the top three riders coming from the three different Ducati teams.
Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez claimed fourth and fifth for Trackhouse as the pair finished ahead of factory Aprilia rider Jorge Martin.
Francesco Bagnaia claimed seventh after starting in 10th, followed by KTM’s Pedro Acosta and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
Diogo Moreira rounded off the top 10, finishing as the top Honda rider, followed by factory rider Luca Marini and KTM’s Brad Binder.
Jack Miller placed Pramac Yamaha in 13th, defeating Enea Bastianini, Joan Mir and his Yamaha counterparts Alex Rins and Toprak Razgatlioglu.
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow claimed 18th, while Maverick Vinales closed out proceedings several seconds behind the British rider.
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