Marc Marquez runs away with Sachsenring victory

Without Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa in the 8th round of the MotoGP championship at Sachsenring and as highly expected - Marc Marquez took his second victory of the season - his fourth successive win on the German circuit - and moved to the head of the standings, with a hard-as-nails Cal Crutchlow taking second, and Valentino Rossi, third.

Marquez was the polesitter, but it was Rossi who got the holeshot with Stefan Bradl and and amazing Aleix Espargaro following in third ahead of Marquez, but after just a few turns on the first lap the LCR Honda rider grabbed the lead, to the joy and roar of the 85,000 plus spectators who came to see the event.

The first lap was highly exciting with the riders tightly packed, nosing around the tails of the bikes in front of them and during the second lap the Repsol Honda rider jumped Espargaro and began chasing Rossi and Bradl. as Cal Crutchlow and Alvaro Bautista passed the CRT rider.

Lap 5 saw Marquez overtake Rossi with paint stripping pass and set his sights on Bradl, and on the sixth lap saw the Italian have a huge moment which allowed Crutchlow - who had a few himself - to catch him and almost simultaneously Marquez took the lead from his satellite counterpart..

Rossi began chasing after the two Honda riders, dragging with him Crutchlow and he passed Bradl during the 9th lap and soon after the British rider did the same when the German who also had a moment, as Marquez began to speed away putting more than half a second between himself and the two Yamaha riders, which became more than 1.5 seconds on lap 13.

Lap 15 saw Crutchlow overtake a struggling Rossi, and immediately begin to distance the factory rider, whose tires began slipping - exactly as he predicted on the eve of the race.

For a few laps the positions remained frozen but with five laps left in the race, Crutchlow turned on the speed and began to try to chase down Marquez but the Spaniard controlled the lap times and would cross over the finish line with a 1.559 margin on the bruised, battered and cut Tech 3 rider, while Rossi was more seven seconds from Crutchlow and more than 9 from Marquez.

After a stunning first part of the race Bradl faded to fourth, followed by Alvaro Bautista and an impressive Bradley Smith who took a safe sixth.

Andrea Dovizioso was seventh and just managed to keep Aleix Espargaro at bay, while Nicky Hayden was 9th and a massive 45 seconds from the top of the timesheets, while Michele Pirro in his last race as a substitute rider for Pramac - at Laguna Seca Alex de Angelis will be riding in place of Ben Spies, was 10th.

2013 MotoGP Sachsenring race results:

01- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 30 laps in 41′14.653
02- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.559
03- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 9.620
04- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 13.992
05- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 21.775
06- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 25.080
07- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 30.027
08- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 30.324
09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 45.355
10- Michele Pirro – Ignite Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 47.142
11- Hector Barbera – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 47.824
12- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 48.523