[Porschefire]

GP9: 5 July - 7 July

Liqui Moly Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland

Sachsenring

Car and bike races have been held on closed public roads in the area around the town of Chemnitz, Germany since the 1920s and were still taking place until as recently as 1990. It was decided, however, that the five mile course through such a densely populated area was no longer suitable and a new circuit was built five miles west of Chemnitz in 1996. Although mainly used as a driver training centre and road transport safety station, Sachsenring first hosted MotoGP in 1998 and many improvements have taken place since then, including a drastic layout enhancement in 2001. Numerous tight corners make it one of the slower tracks on the calendar but there is never any shortage of close racing action.







Previous Winners


2023


2022

[Porschefire]

German GP - Full Qualifying Results





- Jorge Martin takes pole at Sachsenring after a chaotic qualifying sessions that had quite a few incidents, drama, crashes and yellow flags.

- Trackhouse Racing have their best qualifying of 2024 with Miguel Oliveira, who's been fast on the Practice sessions as well, take P2 and Raul Fernandez who was fastest in Q1, secured the third spot.

- Pecco Bagnaia's fast lap was cancelled due to the crash of Alex Marquez and this sees his start from the second row in fourth joining Alex and Morbidelli in row 2.

- Maverick Vinales suffered a big highside at Turn 10 on his final run, throwing him over the handlebars at 150km/h. Vinales crawled slowly away while his damaged RS-GP spewed smoke at the side of the track. He will start from seventh.

- A sore Marc Marquez, riding with a broken left index finger and rib bruising due to his nasty high side in yesterday's Practice, saw his final chance to make Q2 destroyed by HRC test rider Stefan Bradl who was riding so slowly on the exit of Turn 1 that a furious Marquez was forced to back out of his lap. He starts from the fifth row of the grid in 13th for the third time this season.

[Porschefire]

German GP - Sprint





- Jorge Martin wins the Sprint, ending rival Pecco Bagnaia's five race winning streak this season. He started on pole but was passed by Bagnaia and Oliveira at Turn 1. He struck back by overtaking both of them on the second lap and then maintained the lead for the remainder of the race.

- Oliveira’s runner-up finish for Trackhouse was his best MotoGP result since winning the 2022 Thai Grand Prix for KTM, while Bagnaia was forced to settle for third.

- Oliveira’s team-mate Raul Fernandez, starting alongside the Portuguese on the front row, didn’t have the pace on his 2023-spec bike and faded outside the top ten.

- Riding with a broken left index finger and rib bruising from the Friday highside, and starting just 13th after failing to progress past Qualifying 1, Marc Marquez brought his Gresini home in sixth - passing an equally sore Maverick Vinales at the final corner by three thousandths of a second.

- Luca Marini, still to score a point as a Repsol Honda rider, was the top RC213V rider for the first time in 15th.

- Rookie Pedro Acosta's bad run continues from Assen as he ran off and dropped to the back of the field with three laps to go.

[RiderZone]

Nice! I was looking for someone to go with, but nobody was available. Felt it would be rather boring alone. How's the Dutch crowd? I once saw a race at Silverstone, and the Brits were too polite to be any fun, no shouting just clapping!

[Porschefire]

German GP - Race





- In a shocking twist before MotoGP goes on a month long summer break, Jorge Martin has lost the MotoGP title advantage after crashing out of the lead of the German Grand Prix on the penultimate lap!
This is straight out of a blockbuster movie where there is a sudden plot twist, just before the interval. Martin arrived at the Race with a 15 points advantage over his rival, Bagnaia and goes into the break trailing behind him with a 10 points deficit.

- Pecco Bagnaia wins 4 races in a row and becomes the all time rider with the maximum number of wins for Ducati, surpassing the legendary Casey Stoner. He managed his race perfectly, employing the tyre saving approach in the beginning when Jorge Martin and Franco Morbidelli were doing the opposite - pushing the limits. This approach reaped benefits for the reigning World Champion as he was able to maintain constant pressure on Martin up ahead and ultimately resulted in Martin making an unforced error.

- The real star of this race, IMO, has to be Marc Marquez! In the Thursday press conference he mentioned that if he had to keep his 'King of the Ring' record intact, he needed to have a perfect weekend right from the get-go. Instead, it was anything but perfect with technical issues during Practice, encountering traffic during qualifying that denied him a chance to enter Q2and a huge high side at 190kmph that resulted in a broken finger and severe bruises on the ribcage. Despite not being at 100% fitness, he rode an absolutely fantastic race to come from all the way down in 13th to 2nd! He made a good start gaining 4 places and immediately got onto overtaking a bunch of riders. He lost a part of his windscreen in his battle with Morbidelli and despite this, he was able to better his race pace for the final parts of the race. Something about a damaged Gresini machine that makes him go faster, I suppose! In the penultimate lap, he overtook his brother Alex to climb onto the second step of the podium.

- Alex Marquez puts in a brilliant performance to join his brother on the podium. He showed incredible pace for the entirety of the race overtaking the likes of Miguel Oliveira and Franco Morbidelli.
Marc Marquez mentioned that he'd have traded his perfect Sachsenring record to stand with his brother on the podium any day! What a sweet gesture and incredible to see two brothers on the podium!

- Enea Bastianini and Franco Morbidelli make it a Top 5 finish for Ducati.

- The Trackhouse duo of Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez just didn't have the race pace they displayed during Qualifying as they finished sixth and tenth respectively.

- This has to be one of top most exciting races of 2024 for sure! MotoGP heads into a 4 weeks break before the circus arrives in Silverstone during the first week of April where it will celebrate its 75 years of existence.

The World Championship standings after round nine -

[rajeevsulu]

I agree wholeheartedly with you,Marc Marquez was the hero!! From 13 th on the grid to 2 nd was some ride, especially with his injuries. Martin succumbed to the pressure exerted by Bagnia.

Cheers

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

The World Championship standings after round nine

Post race tyre pressure penalties resulted in the promotion of Luca Marini by one position to 15th and him finally scoring his first point in this year's World Championship in Repsol Honda colours.

[Porschefire]

Originally Posted by Fx14

Post race tyre pressure penalties resulted in the promotion of Luca Marini by one position to 15th and him finally scoring his first point in this year's World Championship in Repsol Honda colours.

You are right, thanks for the info.

The updated World Championship standings are -

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

The real star of this race, IMO, has to be Marc Marquez

Originally Posted by rajeevsulu

Marc Marquez was the hero!

The way Marc shows his skills under adverse conditions time and time again I feel when he is on equal machinery to Pecco he will wipe the floor with him.

Maybe a learning curve again of a few races for Marc but eventually I cannot see Pecco beating Marc consistently to become world champion again. We may see a time of Marc becoming a multiple champion on a Ducati and beating Rossi’s record.

Not discounting Pecco’s skills or quality riding on the Ducati but just cannot see him being a better rider than Marc.

Let’s see, time will tell. 2025 onwards seems to be an epic time to be a Moto GP fan.

Cheers

[rajeevsulu]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

The way Marc shows his skills under adverse conditions time and time again I feel when he is on equal machinery to Pecco he will wipe the floor with him.

Maybe a learning curve again of a few races for Marc but eventually I cannot see Pecco beating Marc consistently to become world champion again. We may see a time of Marc becoming a multiple champion on a Ducati and beating Rossi’s record.

Not discounting Pecco’s skills or quality riding on the Ducati but just cannot see him being a better rider than Marc.

Let’s see, time will tell. 2025 onwards seems to be an epic time to be a Moto GP fan.

Cheers

Pecco has not been tested consistently as yet. When ever Martin did, Pecco has risen to the occasion and beaten him.Same can/will happen with Marquez too,I feel. Never underestimate an Italian on a motorcycle

Cheers

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by rajeevsulu

Pecco has not been tested consistently as yet. When ever Martin did, Pecco has risen to the occasion and beaten him.Same can/will happen with Marquez too,I feel. Never underestimate an Italian on a motorcycle

Martin and Pecco too to a certain extent have crumbled under pressure. Not underestimating Pecco or even Martin, both are superb, just don’t think their talent is in the same league of Marc Marquez nor can they dig that deep when the things aren’t going their way as Marc can.

We will have to wait and see, looking forward to the battle royale.

Cheers

[Porschefire]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

The way Marc shows his skills under adverse conditions time and time again I feel when he is on equal machinery to Pecco he will wipe the floor with him.

Maybe a learning curve again of a few races for Marc but eventually I cannot see Pecco beating Marc consistently to become world champion again. We may see a time of Marc becoming a multiple champion on a Ducati and beating Rossi’s record.

Not discounting Pecco’s skills or quality riding on the Ducati but just cannot see him being a better rider than Marc.

Let’s see, time will tell. 2025 onwards seems to be an epic time to be a Moto GP fan.

Cheers

I think Marc Marquez and his team have played their cards perfectly to coax Ducati into choosing him over the more experienced and a proven winner on a Ducati GP machine in Jorge Martin and no, I am not discounting the fact that MM93 is naturally, the more talented of the two. Surely, one cannot simply overlook an 8 times World Champion who's also performing at the highest level on a year old machinery!

IMO, 2025 will be Marc's best chance to attain the 9th World Championship title and go level with his nemesis, Valentino Rossi. Here's why -

• With the exit of Pramac, two lesser Ducatis to compete with and the rumour that Ducati will only be running only three GP25s as opposed to four.
• Apart from Pecco, his main rivals Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini will be on new machinery next year and that would necessitate them to invest in the learning curve which means, probably two less contenders for the title.
  
• KTM started strongly this year with Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta performing well in the initial few rounds but clearly, their development has gone in reverse in the last few races. Their 2025 chances will really depend on how they improve the remainder of 2024. Also, the fact that they haven't won a race since 2022 really speaks volume of how they aren't really up there to challenge the Ducatis just yet.
  
• Aprilia on the other hand are better equipped than KTM, but are inconsistent. Apart from COTA this year, where Maverick Vinales dominated the entire weekend, their performance has been up and down. The RS-GP this year is in a better position to challenge the GP24s for wins rather than the RC16, but they need to find the consistency.
  
• Despite the star studded lineup for Factory Aprilias and KTMs in 2025, I see them winning races again but will not post a serious challenge for the championship.
  
• I don't need to mention Yamaha or Honda as they will only focus on rebuilding and development for 2027.
  
• Apart from the talent itself, Marc is the master of mind games on and off the track. Besides Pecco, the Ducati stable next year will include Alex Marquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Fermin Aldeguer and possibly Franco Morbidelli (for VR46), Marc clearly has the skill and the mental capacity to dominate all of them.
  
• Based on my theories above, the only competition that Marc has then, is his teammate Pecco Bagnaia. He is the current World Champion and I'm pretty sure he's gonna retain that title going into 2025 as well. He has the skillset to match Marc, the experience and more importantly, the team around him in the paddock and back home in Borgo Panigale, which he will try to use it to his advantage. Combining all these with his calm composure and his ability to remain patient to achieve results, he will certainly upgrade his political arsenal to deal with MM93's tactics.

2025's gonna be epic!

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

IMO, 2025 will be Marc's best chance to attain the 9th World Championship title and go level with his nemesis, Valentino Rossi. Here's why -

Based on my theories above, the only competition that Marc has then, is his teammate Pecco Bagnaia. He is the current World Champion and I'm pretty sure he's gonna retain that title going into 2025 as well.

2025 will be very difficult, though not impossible for Marc to win his record equalling title with Rossi but he may take the first half of the year to settle down with the bike and team. I believe he’s only taking his tyre person over to Ducati, no other staff. Also depends on how much pressure Marc will put on Pecco or how much pressure Pecco will put on himself with Marc on the other side of the garage.

If not 2025 then 2026 should be Marc’s year for sure as I believe Pecco cannot compare with Marc on any level with the same machinery consistently.

As we have agreed - 2025 will be epic for sure.

Cheers

[parzival]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

- In a shocking twist before MotoGP goes on a month long summer break, Jorge Martin has lost the MotoGP title advantage after crashing out of the lead of the German Grand Prix on the penultimate lap!
This is straight out of a blockbuster movie where there is a sudden plot twist, just before the interval. Martin arrived at the Race with a 15 points advantage over his rival, Bagnaia and goes into the break trailing behind him with a 10 points deficit.

Man!! what a weekend it has been. Not to forget the practice and the qualifying were as thrilling as the races themselves, if not more. It must be exhilarating to watch the races from the stands.
I am very new to MotoGP (and to TBHP, in fact this is my first post) and boy! I am hooked. I have been on and off of MotoGP during my college days. I used to know who won and stuff but that's it. I took a serious interest in MotoGP when I got my first bike after college in 2017: KTM RC 200, with the intention of taking it to the tracks (nope, didn't happen and i sold it off) And thats when KTM entered MotoGP. Even then I used to watch random races and obviously rooted for KTM, still do. But I never really knew the people, except for a few, and the technicalities of the sport then.
What changed it was a random yt video on Marc and his crash and went digging deep out of curiosity and learned more about the technicalities and the people in the sport. For me, its always the people, the technicalities and the history of a sport that make it appealing. I have not missed a single race this season. Just watching it live itself is so anxious and overwhelming sometimes.