Taking it as a given that Marc Marquez is a winner just about every time he goes out on track in 2025, let’s look at who else came away from MotoGP’s trip to Germany feeling better than when they arrived. And, as always, those who will be glad to put their Sachsenring visit behind them.
Winner: Alex Marquez
The man second in the points wasn’t even sure he would be allowed to take part in this halfway round of the championship when he arrived in Germany last week. But MotoGP medical director Angel Charte was pleased with progress on the hand Alex Marquez had injured at Assen and passed him fit to take part in Free Practice on Friday. Then, when Marquez got through that first session reasonably fast and without terminal discomfort, he was cleared to race for the rest of the weekend.
That’s not to say he wasn’t feeling any pain. Nor that he didn’t have to adapt his riding. Protecting his second place in the championship standings was by no means a given under the circumstances. So, coming away from it all with his ‘usual’ second place on Sunday, having stretched his points advantage over his nearest chaser, Francesco Bagnaia, was a definite win. He said so himself, in fact, claiming it felt “like a victory.”
Defeating Bagnaia in the sprint despite a cautious run to eighth place in the wet was a welcome bonus for the Gresini Ducati rider.
Loser: VR46
If the VR46 Ducati team was in the business of writing heart-jerking scripts, it would have done a good trade in Germany. Its heroes looked set for an above-average weekend before each of them saw his dreams come crashing down – quite literally.
Franco Morbidelli didn’t set the world alight on Friday, but qualified a handy fourth when the rain arrived on Saturday. He then got off to a fine sprint start to claim an early second place… before a sickening crash on lap three sent him to hospital. A collarbone injury was diagnosed, ending his weekend early. Depending what the doctors say on Monday, it may not be the only race the Roman misses.
Fabio Di Giannantonio, on the other hand, showed real promise on Friday when he topped Practice. Though Saturday’s rain hobbled him a little in qualifying, when he rode a solid sprint to fourth. When the sun returned on Sunday, hopes were high – all the more so when he found his way into second place early on. He looked set to finish there, too, until he threw it into the gravel on lap 18 to complete an ultimately miserable weekend for Valentino Rossi’s boys.
Winner: Luca Marini
If Alex Marquez had some discomfort to deal with following his Assen misadventure and a relatively minor surgical procedure, it was nothing compared to the story Luca Marini could tell of his comeback from injury. The Italian crashed in May while testing at Suzuka for the forthcoming 8 Hours. And it was a big accident.
Getting fit from the range of injuries he had was a serious undertaking for Marini. That he only missed three races was, in fact, remarkable. To return to action at the Sachsenring, which may be low-speed but certainly keeps a dodgy left arm busy, was a challenge beyond that routinely offered by a Honda RC213V – a bike that seemed to have stagnated in Marini’s absence.
But the Italian promptly outqualified his world champion team-mate Joan Mir. He was running ahead of him in the grand prix too, until Mir was speared off by Ai Ogura. On a day when hanging on to finish was tough even without pain – and he reported that he began to “struggle physically” before a third of the race was up – Marini did exactly that to earn sixth, his best result of the season.
Loser: Tech3 KTM
If VR46 had a promising story that ended badly, the French KTM squad’s tale barely even had a chance to get going. That’s how grim a weekend it was for the team from Bornes-Les-Mimosas.
Enea Bastianini didn’t even make it to Germany after receiving an unwelcome appendicitis diagnosis on the eve of the event. This left Maverick Vinales as the only Tech3 representative at the Sachsenring. He was unable to provide a spirit-lifting performance, however, and was condemned to Q1 by his Friday afternoon showing.
While Vinales did make the cut into the battle for pole, he followed that up by high-siding on his first out-lap in Q2. After landing heavily on his shoulder, it turned out he had a fracture. And that’s how Tech3 ended up missing the races entirely: no riders, no race.
Winner: Brad Binder
Everything is relative, but by the standards of his season Brad Binder enjoyed a good weekend in Germany. Yes, attrition played a role in his seventh place on Sunday, but it came on the back of his best sprint result of the season on Saturday, when he finished sixth. And it was all set up by scooting straight into Q2 on Friday – only the third time this year that the South African has managed the feat.
Learning how not to fall off was a big help in constructing a positive weekend, said Binder as he reflected on his work at the Sachsenring. “I’ve stayed up two weekends in a row now. That’s a lot better than the beginning of the year when I was chucking it a few times a weekend. There’s more focus on just riding the bike and less focus on trying to ride like someone else – my team-mates or whatever. So far that has worked a bit better.”
Loser: Fermin Aldeguer
Fifth place in the grand prix wasn’t a dreadful result, particularly as Fermin Aldeguer’s race ended with him putting heavy pressure on Fabio Quartararo. But it relied on a few retirements and masked what seems to be a loss of form in a critical area.
Following two crashes in practice, this was the third straight weekend in which the Gresini Ducati rookie failed to book direct passage into Q2. Something’s definitely up, because that had become a matter of course for the Moto2 graduate since he suddenly found his MotoGP feet in Austin.
After sneaking through Q1 on the last two outings in Italy and the Netherlands, Aldeguer ran out of luck in Germany. Though the 20-year-old continues to progress in races as he learns on the job, there’s only so much you can do from way down the grid. So, rediscovering his Friday speed will be key to the Spaniard repeating his Le Mans podium.
