MotoGP German GP: Bagnaia gifted win after Martin crashes from lead

Francesco Bagnaia moved to the top of the MotoGP standings with victory in the German Grand Prix after title rival Jorge Martin crashed out while holding a comfortable lead.

Martin had looked set to take top honours at the Sachsenring from pole position after repassing Bagnaia early on in the race, but an error with just two laps to the finish handed the top spot and the championship lead to reigning champion Bagnaia.

Marc Marquez came through from 13th on the grid to take second position, with brother and Gresini team-mate Alex Marquez completing the podium spots.

At the start of the race, Bagnaia was immediately on the move, jumping from fifth to third into Turn 1 behind polesitter Martin and second-placed Miguel Oliveira.

At the end of the opening lap, Bagnaia sent his Ducati GP24 up the inside of Oliveira at the final turn to claim second, before replicating the same pass on Martin on the following tour to grab the lead.

However, instead of pulling away at the front, Bagnaia chose to save his tyre at this stage, allowing both Martin and a charging Franco Morbidelli to demote him back to third.

It wasn’t until lap 15, the halfway point of the race, that Bagnaia picked up the pace again, repeating his Turn 13-pass on Morbidelli to retake second and set-up a duel with Martin.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Martin was 1.1s clear of him at this stage, but Bagnaia quickly set about hunting down the championship leader at the 3.3km Sachsenring circuit.

Although Bagnaia was able to bring the gap down to seven tenths, Martin was able to up the pace himself and was running comfortably out in front when he lost the front of his Pramac GP24 at Turn 1 on the start of lap 29 and crashed out of the race in spectacular fashion.

Bagnaia inherited the top spot as a result of Martin’s error and went on to take the chequered flag with a margin of 3.8s to clinch his fourth successive grand prix win and seventh overall of 2024.

The result completely changes the complexion of the championship, handing Bagnaia a 10-point lead over Martin going into the summer break.

Marquez put in an incredible recovery from the fifth row of the grid to claim second on a track where he has won eight times in the premier class.

Still nursing pain in his rib cage following a highside in practice, Marquez had a coming-together with Morbidelli at Turn 1 for what was then a battle for fourth, but he was able to dispatch the Pramac rider at the final corner on lap 25 before reeling in his younger brother Alex at the penultimate corner on the 29th tour.

Alex Marquez still crossed the line in third to record his first podium of 2024 as well as a double podium for the Gresini team.

Factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini was able to carve his way from ninth on the grid to take fourth at the finish after coming on top in a close fight with Morbidelli in the final stages of the race.

Fifth, however, was still Morbidelli’s best finish of 2024, having joined Pramac after missing pre-season testing due to an injury.

The Trackhouse team couldn’t replicate the pace it showed in the sprint, with Oliveira quickly dropping from second on the grid and ending up sixth and Raul Fernandez only ending up 10th on last year's Aprilia.

Tech3 GasGas rider Pedro Acosta was once again the top finisher on the KTM in seventh, two places ahead of factory rider Brad Binder.

VR46's Marco Bezzecchi was the sole remaining runner for VR46 after Fabio di Giannantonio’s early exit due to mechanical troubles and the Italian took his GP23 to eighth at the flag, ahead of Binder and Fernandez

Fabio Quartararo was 11th on the top factory Yamaha ahead of Maverick Vinales, who had a difficult race on the Aprilia en route to 12th. KTM rider Jack Miller, GasGas runner Augusto Fernandez and LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami completed the points scorers, the last-named being the top representative on a Honda bike.

Remy Gardner’s return to MotoGP as a substitute for Alex Rins at Yamaha yielded a 20th-place finish.

MotoGP German GP - Race results:

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Rider	#		Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1		Ducati	30	-				25
2	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93		Ducati	30	+3.804 3.804	3.804			20
3	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73		Ducati	30	+4.334 4.334	0.530			16
4	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23		Ducati	30	+5.317 5.317	0.983			13
5	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21		Ducati	30	+5.557 5.557	0.240			11
6	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88		Aprilia	30	+10.481 10.481	4.924			10
7	P. Acosta Tech 3	31		KTM	30	+14.746 14.746	4.265			9
8	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72		Ducati	30	+14.930 14.930	0.184			8
9	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33		KTM	30	+15.084 15.084	0.154			7
10	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25		Aprilia	30	+16.384 16.384	1.300			6
11	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20		Yamaha	30	+17.235 17.235	0.851			5
12	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12		Aprilia	30	+18.865 18.865	1.630			4
13	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43		KTM	30	+25.425 25.425	6.560			3
14	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37		KTM	30	+25.495 25.495	0.070			2
15	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30		Honda	30	+25.817 25.817	0.322			1
16	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10		Honda	30	+25.854 25.854	0.037
17	J. Zarco Team LCR	5		Honda	30	+25.952 25.952	0.098
18	S. Bradl HRC Test Team	6		Honda	30	+43.047 43.047	17.095
19	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36		Honda	30	+43.145 43.145	0.098
20	R. Gardner Yamaha Factory Racing	87		Yamaha	30	+50.115 50.115	6.970
dnf	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89		Ducati	28	2 laps			Retirement
dnf	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49		Ducati	9	21 laps			Retirement
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