Marc Marquez disappointed the passionate home crowd by beating Stefan Bradl to victory at the German Grand Prix after a race long tussle for the lead. The two championship rivals repeated their tense battle of Mugello two weeks ago but the Spaniard made the decisive move seven laps from home.
The leaders were simply thankful to make it through turn one unscathed after four riders speared into the gravel trap just behind. Bradley Smith made another rocket start to take third at the first corner but the Briton couldn't stop his Mistral 610 in time. He was joined in the dirt by Xavier Simeon who wiped out Julian Simon with Ricard Cardus also running wide.
Marquez and Bradl scampered clear at the front with Alex de Angelis running with them. Thomas Luthi made rapid progress from 12th on the grid to lead the chasing group in fourth ahead of Yonny Hernandez and Aleix Espargaro.
The Pons Kalex rider made a dramatic exit on lap six though as he highsided through turn seven, collecting the blameless Max Neukirchner out of his home Grand Prix in the process. This promoted Scott Redding into seventh after the British teenager had stormed through the field, by lap 12 he had deprived Simone Corsi of sixth.
At half distance, Bradl began to pile the pressure on Marquez with the sell-out crowd willing him on. They got their wish at the start of lap 14 as the Spaniard outbraked himself into turn one prompting a roar from the grandstands.
After a brief battle with De Angelis, Marquez regrouped and with just over seven laps remaining, the Suter motored past Bradl's Kalex exiting the high-speed turn 11 before edging clear to give Marquez his fourth Moto2 victory. Bradl consolidated his championship lead with second while De Angelis took his first podium of the year.
The fireworks in the closing laps were provided by Randy Krummenacher. The Swiss youngster, teammate to Bradl, scythed his way through the group involving Scott Redding before demoting Hernandez to sixth. The battle for fourth ensued between the compatriots Luthi and Krummenacher but the younger rider took it after a forceful pass on the penultimate lap.
Scott Redding fended off Simone Corsi to take an excellent seventh from nowhere on the grid while Jules Cluzel recovered from an off-track excursion to beat Michele Pirro to ninth.
Bradley Smith's race never recovered from his first corner mishap. Although the Tech 3 youngster fought his way up to the fringes of the points positions, a second crash on lap 16 finished his race for good and he was lucky to avoid being collected as the following riders ducked past him.
