Marc Marquez eases to Germany MotoGP victory to boost his title hopes
Marc Marquez has won his 10th German Grand Prix in dominant fashion
Ducati’s Marc Marquez eased to victory from pole position at the 2026 MotoGP German Grand Prix, he moves to within 18 points of the championship lead.
The reigning world champion was 102 points adrift of the standings lead after last month’s Italian Grand Prix.
But victories in Hungary, Czechia, and now in Germany, as well as a complete collapse for Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, has seen him wipe that gap down to just 18 points at the halfway stage of the campaign.
Winning the sprint on Saturday after qualifying on pole, Marc Marquez led all 30 laps of Sunday’s grand prix to tally up his third main race win of the season and his 10th in MotoGP at the Sachsenring.
He was just under two seconds clear of Trackhouse duo Ai Ogura, who passed team-mate Raul Fernandez late on.
Ogura is now second in the standings, 14 points behind Jorge Martin, who extended his advantage slightly after finishing fifth.
Just as he did on Saturday in the sprint, Marc Marquez grabbed the holeshot from pole position ahead of Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez.
A bad start for VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio saw him drop behind Ogura and Fernandez at Turn 1.
Fernandez moved through on Ogura at the final corner at the end of the opening lap, but Di Giannantonio was unable to make a similar move.
The VR46 Ducati rider crashed out on lap four of 30 at Turn 10 while running fifth.
At the front, the Marquez brothers were split by around 0.3s to 0.5s for the first eight laps, before Alex Marquez fell out of second at the final corner on the ninth tour.
This blew Marc Marquez’s lead open to 1.3s over Fernandez, with that gap steadily building to over two seconds as the race wore on.
Marquez came under no pressure as he eased his pace in the closing stages to take the chequered flag 1.996s clear of the field.
Fernandez eventually fell into the clutches of team-mate Ogura, who came through to second at Turn 1 with six laps to go.
He quickly pulled over three seconds clear of Fernandez, who completed the podium.
KTM’s Pedro Acosta came from eighth on the grid and challenged for the podium at one stage, but could do no more than fourth, 2.5s behind Fernandez.
Aprilia’s Martin fended off a late charge from Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia to hold fifth, while Fabio Quartararo was seventh on the leading Yamaha.
Luca Marini was eighth for Honda ahead of KTM duo Enea Bastianini and Brad Binder.
The final points went to LCR Honda’s Diogo Moreira, Pramac’s Jack Miller, Franco Morbidelli (VR46), Alex Rins (Yamaha) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac).
Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) was a late retirement into the pits, while there were crashes for Honda’s Joan Mir and LCR’s Cal Crutchlow.
Martin’s championship lead now stands at 14 points over Ogura, with Marquez a further four adrift. Bezzecchi is now down to fourth at 22 points from the lead.
