Marc Marquez staged a dramatic comeback to make a last-lap pass to win the sprint race at the German Grand Prix on Saturday, the six-time MotoGP world champion recovering from a first-lap error to take victory in a sprint for the 10th time in 11 starts this season.
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The Ducati rider took his seventh pole position of the season in a rain-lashed qualifying session earlier on Saturday, but ran deep into the first corner of the 15-lap sprint to drop down to fifth before passing Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi on the final lap to win by 0.938 seconds.
Bezzecchi led for all but one lap but couldn’t replicate his sole sprint success at the Dutch GP of 2023, while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo finished third, 4.361secs behind Marquez for his first sprint podium in over two years.
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“I cannot say today that I think a lot about the championship,” said Marquez, who extended his series lead to 78 points after his closest rival and younger sibling Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) finished eighth, his worst sprint result this season.
“Just in the beginning of the race I was struggling, I did a mistake on turn one on the start, and I lose some positions. But then step by step I got the rhythm like in the practice sessions … happy, because again we take the 12 points from the sprint. If tomorrow is wet, we need to breathe a bit more to overtake somebody.”
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Marquez needed four laps to recover to third place past a stubborn Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati) in the early stages, and overtook Quartararo for second place with seven laps remaining, Bezzecchi having escaped to a 1.8-second lead.
The Spaniard ate rapidly into the Italian’s margin to draw within two-tenths of a second with three laps left, and passed Bezzecchi at the first corner on the final lap of the race, powering away to set a record for the most sprint wins in a single season, surpassing Jorge Martin’s nine sprint victories from 2023.
Australia’s Jack Miller finished fifth for his best sprint race result since last year’s Austrian Grand Prix in August, the Yamaha rider assuredly riding through from ninth on the grid to finish 9.405secs behind Marquez.
The 30-year-old had scored just one sprint point this season before Saturday when he finished ninth at Silverstone, but moved past Alex Marquez into sixth on lap four, and gained another place when KTM’s Pedro Acosta ran wide off track and relinquished fourth place with eight laps remaining.
The 30-lap German Grand Prix, round 11 of the 22-round MotoGP season, will take place at 11pm on Sunday (AEST).