“La Decima.”
Welcome back to Dre’s Race Review for another weekend and amazingly, just the one episode this week, huzzah? MotoGP was back for Round 11 of the 2026 World Championship and it was a return to the Sachsenring for the German Grand Prix.
If you’re a bike fan, do I even need to tell you what happened here? Even if the answer is no, stick around, because the title race has taken yet another terrifying turn. Marco Bezzecchi, take it away…
Keep It Upright
The early quotes across the weekend were quite something. Marc Marquez was openly playing mind games with the field, claiming his brother Alex, fellow Duke Fabio di Giannantonio and even the recovering Marco Bezzecchi were all in contention. The more cynically minded amongst biking observers said that this was a deliberate play to wind-up the field because Marquez smelled blood and weakness amongst the field. On this one, they may have had a point.
Marco Bezzecchi only compounded that theory with a huge highside coming out of Turn 6. He’s on partial throttle heading down the hill when the rear loses grip, and spits Bez off his Aprilia, landing into the gravel traps and into a massive roll at 90mph. Bez was already dinged up badly after his 125mph crash from Assen. No broken limbs or muscle tears, but a lot of soreness and pain.
The second time wasn’t going to be so lucky. A dislocated and broken clavicle meant the weekend was over, and the first flight back to Italy for surgery. If it all goes to plan, he may race at Silverstone given the nearly month long Summer Break, but it’ll be touch and go, and even if he makes it, how close to 100% will he be?
In any case, it’s another crash that’s led to two more non-scores and just 13 points in his last four race weekends. In that same timespan, Marc Marquez has racked up 118 and is now ahead of Bez in the World Championship, with Bez now on a similar injury trajectory too. It’s an unmitigated disaster and the factory Aprilia’s grip on a potential Triple Crown is slipping fast, partially because Jorge Martin still isn’t firing on full cylinders.
Martin’s now racked up enough experience on the Aprilia where it’s fair to ask the question as to why he can’t replicate what Ai Ogura and even Raul Fernandez are doing. Martin has a high floor, eight Top 5’s in 11 GP’s this season, and he’s second in Sprints this season behind Marquez, but just the one GP victory. He’s lucky right now that the winning has been spread out this year, but as proven by other riders we’ll get to, you can’t point your way to the crown when the elite riders can win relatively at will. These series reward winning above all else and at some point, you need that chunk 25 point haul. Martin hasn’t proven he can do it in a more competitive, Ducati-recovering climate.
This was further proven by Saturday’s action. Marquez broke the all-time lap record to take pole position ahead of his brother Alex (Somehow on one good arm, funny that), and Fabio di Giannantonio in third. And that’s literally how it stayed after the Sprint. The Trackhouse Aprilia’s couldn’t breach Ducati’s impregnable fortress around a track where rear grip is so important (Their bread and butter), and Marc had enough pace in hand to win relatively comfortably to hold the Ducati front tow. 19th Sprint win, taking the record back from Martin for the third time.
The Sunday race was looking like more of the same. Fabio di Giannantonio didn’t get the lightning start to keep third this time, and was now behind the Trackhouse Aprilia’s, while the Marquez brothers took the early lead. The difference this time was Diggia crashed for the second time that day – He’d already gone down hard at Turn 7 in warm-up and then again in the race, losing the front at Turn 10 before the Waterfall. Shortly after, Alex Marquez angered me greatly by crashing the beautiful Telefonica Movistar 2003 replica livery at the final corner by losing the front. It cleared Marc with a 1.3 second gap, and it never got that low again.
Raul Fernandez, in second at the time, was always going to struggle in the back half, as it turned out he had a compression shock from riding over the kerbs on Friday and was in a rather large amount of back pain. Combine that with Ogura’s second wind again and we all knew how that was ending. The reassuring news from Ogura’s perspective – He was fast enough to keep Marc honest on his best track, on a slightly inferior package here. I said it before, that Ogura’s the likely #1 threat to Marquez going forward, as Trackhouse looks like a much more cohesive unit than their factory partners at present.
But Marc Marquez was ultimately untouchable. His 10th win at the Sachsenring matching the great Giacomo Agostini’s record of 10 at a single track like he did in Finland’s Imatra circuit. A Grand Slam in the GP and a fastest lap shy of doing the same in the Sprint too, the maximum 37 points, and mission accomplished in bringing the title fight into picture at the break. Marquez is now just 18 points behind Martin, with the Top 5 in the standings within a GP’s worth of points. Which got me thinking…
The Marquez Problem
My old mate Kevin Walsh made an interesting point and it’s a fair counter to the Top 8 in the standings being covered by 63 points after Assen. When you know Marc Marquez is such a brilliant proven commodity and has been the established rider in the world (And possible GOAT), everything else can feel… inadequate. The man was celebrating with his Ducati team after the race by doing the Viking rowing celebration while openly talking about chasing the title for fuck sake. Jorge Martin, leading the World Championship and who has been on the better bike in 2026, said Marc’s the favourite, not him.
Does Marc need an elite contender for the drama of the title to mean more?
I think to a degree, we’ve been spoiled with MotoGP riders. You could argue, the three best MotoGP riders of the modern age, have come pretty much one after the other since the early 90’s – Doohan, Rossi and Marquez. We’ve had incredible riders and Champions in between, but pound-for-pound, these three have been the cornerstones of the sport. It’s like the Green Bay Packers in the NFL going from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers (And a lesser degree, Jordan Love).
We’ve had a messy period with MotoGP in recent years. Marquez won six World Championships in his first seven years in the top flight. After he broke his arm and then stupidly tried to race on it, leading to five seasons of complications and unfit machinery, we had:
- Joan Mir win a world title with one victory in a 14-race calendar, where seven or eight riders were in play across the season
- Fabio Quartararo win a world title just before Yamaha collapse as a manufacturer
- Pecco Bagnaia come back from 91 points down to win a title with 5 DNF’s while becoming Ducati’s most successful rider before Marquez blows him away
- Jorge Martin becoming MotoGP’s first independent champion in 23 years
And many of said riders up there, have failed to be long-term threats to Marc. Bagnaia’s been in development hell to the point where his relationship with Ducati completely broke down. Martin’s made a complete mess of his Aprilia switch and is now heading to the worst factory with the sport (Ogura may only have one crack at the title in his prime years at this rate), Quartararo heading to Honda feels like a sidestep and not a move to launch Honda back to prominence, and we’re banking a lot of hope that Mir can replicate his last tenure in baby blue.
Marc got wiped out in Mandalika last year and if Alex Marquez was in the ball park instead of 150 down after his spring decline, he’s a World Champion.
It’s a rapid change from the sport I grew up in where you knew before going in that the World title was going to an alien riding in Orange and Blue (Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Stoner, Rossi and then Marquez). We gatekept that elite class and appreciated it for the best of the best competing at the same time. 2026 has become one of the most unpredictable fights in modern times, but I can’t ignore the presence of riders that don’t feel like they should be there. Do Diggia, Acosta, and Fernandez feel like contenders?
If you want the other side of the coin, read my Assen DRR for more from a fortnight ago, would love to hear where you stand on this one.
The Lightning Round
Genuine question? If you’re HRC, do you promote Diogo Moreira into the factory seat for 2027, or keep to the rumoured plan of David Alonso? Because Moreira is a bankable Brazilian star and having ridden very well this season, it’s a compelling argument.
Cal Crutchlow was in a genuine battle for a point with Toprak until he crashed in the back half of the race. Sad as it is, I can’t help but be impressed at how quickly he’s taken to the Honda and how quickly he’s gotten into racing shape.
When Maverick Vinales was on the brink of parting with Yamaha, Germany, a race where he was running dead last and refusing to copy Fabio’s setup, was the first smoking gun. Was this weekend the same story in the midst of his collapsed relationship in MotoGP? Could KTM cut ties early and plug Pol Espargaro in?
Pedro Acosta, perpetual winner of the: “Riding the nuts off this thing” award.
It’s not lost on me as a Sete Gibernau fan that Alex Marquez binned his livery on the same corner that he won there with in 2003. Alex Marquez has finished one Feature Race since his Spanish victory. ONE!
Is it Luca Marini or Manu Gonzalez for one spot at Tech3 alongside Senna Agius? Again, tough call. Marini’s a brilliant thinking man’s rider for a KTM factory that needs experience, but Manu is the class of Moto2 and should be good enough to move up… tough.
Brian Uriarte beat Max Quiles straight up in Moto3. It was a very impressive ride. Almost as impressive as realising that the latter now has 19 podiums in 29 Moto3 starts. WHAT
…What do you mean someone other than Nicolo Bulega won a World Superbike race?!
Sprint Rating: ⭐⭐ (Meh) – We’ve been spoiled this season, this was again, more of the status quo. Top 3 held station and didn’t take hellacious amounts of risk, and that was settled as the race went on.
The Verdict: 4/10 (Double Meh) – Yeah, this was a bit of a nothingburger. Marquez took the front and was never really challenged, and his two main contenders crashed of their own volition. Ogura was fast, but left it too late to get to the front. We’ll be back in four weeks time for the British Grand Prix after the Summer Break. Till then!
