Marc Marquez saw off the brave challenge of home favourite Jonas Folger to take an eight consecutive German Grand Prix victory from pole position at the Sachsenring. The reigning champion maintained his undefeated record in the premier class despite Folger’s race-long challenge and will now take the championship lead into the summer break.
Although he had gone fastest of all in morning warm-up, Folger didn’t seem a threat to the factory Honda riders on paper but after scrapping his way past the Ducatis of Danilo Petrucci and Jorge Lorenzo early on, the local hero had established himself in a three-man breakaway with Marquez and Dani Pedrosa. The pace at the front was blistering, with the leaders regularly lapping in the 1:21s and the pace ultimately proved too tough for Dani, who gradually fell back into a distant third.
Not content with simply following the world champion, Folger triggered an eruption in the grandstands by outbraking Marquez into turn twelve on lap six. Unfortunately for the Tech 3 rider, an error at turn one would allow Marc back through five laps later but to his immense credit, the rookie kept pace with the no.93 until his rear tyre finally began to cry enough with two laps to go.
Marquez was left clear to claim his second win of the year from Folger and Pedrosa while the three other championship contenders were embroiled in a battle over fourth. Valentino Rossi had made the quickest progress from a relatively lowly grid slot, climbing to fourth by lap ten, but the Italian eventually fell back into the clutches of team-mate Maverick Vinales who edged him out ten laps from home.
Pre-race championship leader Andrea Dovizioso was also swapping places with the factory Yamahas throughout but fell victim to the fast-finishing Alvaro Bautista and Aleix Espargaro, relegating him to eighth, while Johann Zarco made impressive progress from nineteenth on the grid, beating Cal Crutchlow and Lorenzo to ninth. Despite his front row start, Petrucci tumbled all the way to twelfth after his decision to run a soft rear tyre backfired.
2017 GoPro Grand Prix Motorrad Deutschland – Result
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