MotoGP: Martin and Michelin score double-tops in Germany
Aided by the performance of his MICHELIN Power slicks, Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) won both Saturday's sprint race and the next day's Liqui Moly Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland. On both occasions, he finished clear of defending champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team), while Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) was third in Sunday's race. Michelin's tires contributed to a new fastest race-lap for the Sachsenring and helped to shave more than seven seconds off the German clash's previous shortest race-duration benchmark.
Despite qualifying sixth for Round 7 of the 2023 MotoGPTM World Championship, Martin got away cleanly at the start of both races to emerge at the front of the field early on.
The sprint saw him take a comfortable victory ahead of Bagnaia and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Jack Miller.
For Sunday's far warmer weather, the Prima Pramac Racing rider opted for the same combination of hard and medium MICHELIN Power slicks front and rear as the rest of the grid, with the exceptions of Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) who chose the soft rear.
At lights-out for the grand prix itself, Martin completed the first of the afternoon's 30 laps in second place behind Bagnaia before easing ahead fourth time around. The Italian managed to recover the lead on Lap 20, but the Spaniard succeeded in passing the Ducati Lenovo Team rider a second time - this time for good - three laps later.
Martin's first win of the season makes him the year's fourth different victor and, helped by the consistency and grip of his Michelin tires, he completed the distance more than seven seconds faster than the previous shortest race-duration record. Since 2017, that honor had belonged to Repsol Honda Team's Marc Marquez who was a non-starter this time around.
Meanwhile, third-placed Zarco established a new race-lap record with a 1m21.225s as he fought his way superbly up the order, just as he did the previous day.
Mooney VR46 Racing Team's Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini rounded out the day's Top 5.
In the course of the weekend, Michelin's entire dry and wet-weather range was used at the Sachsenring which is one of only three anticlockwise venues on this year's calendar. As a consequence, it has more left-hand than right-hand turns, so all the slicks featured an asymmetric construction. The hot temperatures on race day led practically all of the riders to fit the hard and medium compound front and rear.
Bagnaia continues to top the provisional Riders' standings on 160 points, tailed by Martin (144) and Bezzecchi (126).
The Sachsenring also hosted the third meeting of the 2023 FIM ENEL MotoE World Championship. The first race was won by Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team), while Hector Garzo (Dynavolt Intact GP MotoE™) claimed his first-ever victory in Race 2 which was red-flagged with four laps remaining due to rain.
Next round: Motul TT Assen, Assen, Netherlands (June 23-25).