As usual, Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac) had a mediocre start, as usual he finished in a cannonball and, as usual, he finished on the podium. On the Sachsenring circuit in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, the French rider won third place in the German Grand Prix, seventh round of the MotoGP championship, on Sunday June 18. This is his fourth podium this season, the third in a row.
The Frenchman, who notably beat the fastest lap in the race (1’21”225), benefited from the fall of Brad Binder in the 19th lap. He does a double blow since he also passes the South African in the world championship standings. He is now fourth, 51 points behind the leader, the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati).
As the day before during the sprint race – a new shortened race format which now precedes each Grand Prix – the latter was beaten on the wire by the Spaniard Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac). The mano a mano between the two riders was all the more intense as they have the same machine, the Ducati Desmosedici 2023, the latest evolution of the fastest motorcycle on the grid.
The “Martinator”, the big winner of the weekend
The Bologna firm again made a group shot by winning the first five places (and eight of the first nine). If the season is still long, the manufacturer’s title is promised to him. Nothing is played, on the other hand, for that of the pilots. Bagnaia is only 16 points ahead of Martin.
The “Martinator” – that’s his nickname – is the big winner of the weekend. At 25, he is increasingly asserting himself as a serious rival for the Italian from the official Ducati team. At only 34 points, another Italian, Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati-VR46), can also pretend to join the fight for the title.
Johann Zarco, who took fifth in the sprint race the day before, can legitimately aim for a place in the top three or four in the standings this year. What would be his best result in seven seasons of MotoGP, since he has never managed to do better than 5th, in 2021. Above all, he can maintain the ambition of winning a first Grand Prix victory, he who has not never won a single race since he started in the premier speed category.
The other Frenchman on the grid, Fabio Quartararo, could not do better than thirteenth at the Sachsenring, after finishing sixteenth the day before the sprint. Handicapped by the lack of power from his Yamaha, he was never able to join in the fight for victory. A situation that is repeated from race to race. The Niçois has obtained only one podium this season, a third place at the Grand Prix of the Americas, in Austin, on April 16.
The 2021 world champion announced on Saturday June 10 the end of his collaboration with Éric Mahé, his agent since 2016. The latter had negotiated his contract extension with Yamaha in 2022. Quartararo is linked to the Japanese team until end of 2024.
