But Marquez went to the top
in the second practice session,
putting on new tires mid-session
to make sure he would transfer
straight into Qualifying 2. Rins
moved into second ahead of Quar-
tararo, and Viñales advanced to
fourth, ahead of Pol Espargaró on
the Red Bull KTM. Miller, Danil-
lo Petrucci and Dovizioso headed
Rossi, last of the top-10.
Saturday's first practice saw
Quartararo dislocate a shoulder
struggling with a vicious wobble
on his Yamaha. He headed to the
medical center after returning
to the pits. Still, he was second,
ahead of Viñales, Crutchlow and
Rins, while Marquez continued to
experiment with frames. The final
practice session saw Viñales run
quickest, ahead of Marquez and
the Suzuki duo of Rins and Joan
Mir. Espargaró remained fifth,
and Nakagami—who was using
crutches to walk in the garage—
held sixth.
Rossi topped the first qual-
ifying session, although a crash
in Turn One left him on the back
foot going into the final shootout.
Nakagami snatched second at the
very end, pushing Dovizioso out of
Qualifying 2 and leaving him 13th
on the grid. It didn't get better for
Ducati in Qualifying 2, as Petrucci
was held up on his hot laps and
then crashed, leaving him 12th.
Marquez, on the “old” chas-
sis, went quickest in Qualifying
2 with a 1:20.5, then pulled in,
opting for a two-stop strategy and
still experimenting with tire choic-
es. The Honda rider went back out
with a new medium rear tire and
dropped his time to a 1:20.215,
then came back in, stuck in a used
hard rear and went even quicker.
His ultimate time of 1:20.195 was
a new all-time lap record.
Closest was Quartararo,
0.2-second back, with Viñales
only 0.006-second behind. Rins,
Miller and Crutchlow filled out the
second row, ahead of Franco Mor-
bidelli, Espargaró and Mir, with
Nakagami, Rossi and Petrucci
completing the fourth row.MotoGP Race
Rain overnight and cooler
temperatures, meant surface con-
ditions were significantly differ-
ent on Sunday. Marquez wheelied
off the grid, and the lack of drive
meant that he had to dive deep
into Turn One to stay ahead of the
pack. Viñales slotted into second,
ahead of Rins and Miller, with
Crutchlow, Petrucci and Quar-
tararo leading Morbidelli across
the line after the first lap.
Quartararo crashed coming
out of Turn Three, his first race
crash this season. On the next lap,
Crutchlow got past Miller, and thefollowing lap Rins passed Viñales
and set off in pursuit of Marquez.
For 15 laps, Rins held sec-
ond, slowly losing ground to Mar-
quez, who dropped into the 1:21
range and reeled off lap after lap
at that pace. On the fifth lap, the
gap was 0.765-second; five laps
after that, it was more than 2.2
seconds. By lap 14, the gap was
three seconds, and Rins decid-
ed it was time to push. The gap
held steady for the next two laps
and actually dropped a bit on lap
17, then Rins crashed on lap 19,
caught out on one of the course's
few right-hand turns. It was a
crushing blow, particularly since
Rins had crashed out of the lead
at Assen the week before.
That left Viñales second,
with Crutchlow parked on his rear
wheel and seemingly waiting for
the right moment to strike. But
that moment never came, and a
huge rear-end slide on the penul-timate lap left the Honda rider too
far behind to challenge.
Running 10 seconds behind,
three Ducati riders were locked in
battle, with Petrucci coming over
the line in fourth, with Dovizioso
and Miller less than 0.3-second
behind. Mir followed closely be-
hind, comfortably ahead of Rossi,
with Morbidelli and Stefan Bradl—
filling in for the injured Jorge Lo-
renzo—in ninth and 10th.
“I took a lot of risk in the first
corner, I braked so late and I was
able to be in there and then the
first two laps I was just cruising
and trying to understand the limit
of the track after the rain,” Mar-
quez said. “Then when I saw the
tires were ready, I was ready and
the bike was ready, then I started
to attack.”
Viñales told reporters that
he knew second was the best he
could hope for, and he fought hard
to keep Crutchlow from snatching
that place from him. “I saw Cal onmy pit board the whole time and
for about 15 laps I closed every
door,” Viñales said. “I worked very
hard on making sure he couldn't
overtake me, because I knew if he
did, he would go.”
Crutchlow shrugged off his
leg injury and said he was happy
to be on the podium. “I had a bit
better pace than Maverick, but
once Rins crashed I thought I’m
on the podium anyway,” Crutch-
low said. “We had nine seconds to
the guys behind and the gap was
going up every lap. I planned to
attack with five laps to go, but the
wind was so strong that my eyes
were streaming with water, so I
tried to blink it out and he got a
bit of a gap. I came again, but then
with two laps to go I made a big
mistake in Turn 10 and lost the
rear. So after that I said Maverick
could have it.”
Marquez leads Dovizioso
185-127 in points, with Petrucci
in third with 121.Alex Marquez 4 For 5 in Moto2
Alex Marquez struggled with
a crash and machine issues in
practice, but got through Qualify-
ing 1 with time to spare and then
put his Marc VDS Kalex on pole.
Patience in the race paid off with
his fourth win in five races. Brad
Binder was second on the Red
Bull KTM, ahead of Marcel Schrot-
ter on the Dynavolt Kalex. The win
put Marquez back into the cham-
pionship lead by eight points, 136-
128, over Tom Luthi, who finished
sixth after receiving a penalty for
knocking Xavi Vierge down.Moto3: Dalla Porta Takes
First Win of 2019Lorenzo Dalla Porta led his
Leopard Honda teammate Mar-
cos Ramirez across the line by
0.072-second to win his first
Moto3 race of 2019 and take
the Championship points lead(Above) Alex Marquez (73) won the Moto2 race, beating Brad Binder
(41). Iker Lecuona (27) crashed on the last lap. (Below) Lorenzo Dalla Por-
ta (48) won in Moto3 with Marcos Ramirez (42) second, both on Leopard
Hondas; Romano Fenati (55) was fourth. Photos by Milagro/DPPI Media.MotoGP Sachsenring CONTINUED FROM PAGE 50
52—Roadracing World, August 2019