By Donovan Fourie | Guest Contributor | MotoGP Analyst
King of the Ring
It was very much a race of attrition, not for the win but rather who gets to be the first person to stand on the podium next to Marc Marquez.
“King of the Ring” as Marc Marquez has nine wins at the Sachsenring venue, clearly marking it his favourite race track. It makes sense – in direct opposition to Zoolander, Marquez likes going left. He thrives on left-handers. And the German circuit is pretty much all lefts.
He hole-shot the first corner to get out front, and that is where he stayed, maintaining a fast but calm pace until he danced over the line.
Behind him, all sorts of mayhem took place, and it started earlier in the week.
Before the Lights Went Out
Somkiat Chantra injured his knee while training, earning him a sick note from his mother. Tech 3 KTM rider Enea Bastianini earned another sick note with appendicitis before he had even boarded a plane. The second Tech 3 rider, Maverick Vinales, was out of action during the wet Saturday proceedings after a particularly nasty high-side that dislocated his shoulder. Then Morbidelli too had a high-speed high-side that hit so hard, his leather split open.
Before the Sunday race had even started, the grid had dwindled from 22 to 18 riders. It was then that the chaos ensued.
One Crash After Another
Oliveira went down first on lap two, followed by Pedro Acosta, who asked a little too much of his front end through turn two.
Riding his socks off was VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio, who mainlined a little more than a second gap behind Marquez and, impressively, was able to match the Spaniard. This went on for 17 of the 30-lap race when Digi’s front end washed out going into turn one. He slid, he rolled, and he immediately stood up in an admiral manner of coolness and calmness.
Seconds later, Johann Zarco took a spill also at turn one, thankfully, a little further around the bend. That left Marco Bezzecchi on his Aprilia sitting pretty in second place and looking good to repeat his podium at Assen for a whole three laps when he did a carbon copy crash of Zarco again at turn one.
Then Ai Ogura made an attempt on Joan Mir again into the now infamous turn one and again lost the front, taking the hapless Mir with him.
Lastly, Lorenzo Savadori, the Aprilia test rider who has been standing in for the long-time injured Jorge Martin, had the most spectacular crash of the lot at, once more, turn one as his bike cartwheeled through the gravel, leaving his team with a decidedly lighter bank account.
From an initial starting list of 22 riders, we were down to just ten.
A Calm Victory in the Storm
Marquez, as we mentioned, wafted across the line to win. The Younger Marquez, by then, had inherited second with Pecco Bagnaia 0.7sec behind in third.
Honda, KTM and Aprilia each were down to just one rider finishing sixth with Marini, seventh with Binder and ninth with Raul Fernandez.
Why So Many Crashes?
The question remains – why on earth did so many riders crash, and what made turn one such a popular place to do it?
Sachsenring is the shortest circuit on the calendar, and it is mostly just corners one after the other. It’s intensely strenuous on the riders, both physically and mentally. With such things, mistakes happen, and Sachsenring does not take prisoners, especially at turn one.
It’s the track’s hardest braking corner, and to make it more fun, this braking happens over a sharp crest that can easily upset the bike.
Afterwards, the corner heads downhill and gets sharper with a decreasing radius, all while the downhill nature makes it severely off-camber. One little mistake, one twitch, one wobble, one overstretch and the front tucks irreversibly.
Only Ten Left Standing
And thus, just 10 of 22 riders successfully crossed the finish line.