Alvaro Bautista takes excellent fifth place in Germany
Nine straight wins at any one circuit would be an astounding feat for any rider anywhere but that’s exactly what Marc Márquez achieved today at Sachsenring. The Spanish rider took a little longer than usual to make his way to the front, taking the lead on the thirteenth lap, but he managed the gap for the second half of the race to take the win with a two-second advantage.
Team-mates Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales completed a podium that matches the top three in the championship, with Danilo Petrucci and Ángel Nieto Team rider Álvaro Bautista rounding out the top 5.
Álvaro Bautista and the Ángel Nieto Team have continually raised the bar this season with fifth place here outdoing the previous best of eighth at Jerez, as the Spanish rider crossed the line as the top non-factory Ducati.
Bautista started from ninth on the grid but gradually edged closer to the front and finished just five seconds shy of the race winner. Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo were all caught and passed by Bautista, who claimed eleven points and lies thirteenth in the championship.
5th Álvaro Bautista:
“I think first of all, to finish five seconds behind the winner, is not easy. At Assen it was seven seconds and here we have closed the gap. I can’t say it feels like a win because I can’t taste the champagne but it is an important result because we have been on an upward curve since Jerez and it has put us on the right lines. Preseason wasn’t very long, we missed a couple of tests and we struggled a little at the start of the season to find the right way forward. In the race I felt stronger than Dovizioso and Petrucci but it was difficult to pass them. I lost three or four laps there that could have been very valuable. At the end of the race the rear tyre was starting to say ‘enough’ but I could see that Lorenzo was having problems and I was able to pass him. I am happy with the progress we have made, I feel motivated and I think we can do even better.”