Marquez wins ninth straight MotoGP contest after hectic race start
Marc Marquez continued his astonishing winning streak with another clinically executed victory in the German Grand Prix, his ninth of the season.
If this incredible streak continues Marquez could wrap up his second consecutive MotoGP World Championship by the Aragon GP in September, the 14th of 18 races this season.
Marquez showed again that nothing is beyond him on a motorcycle, recovering from the chaos of a massed start in pit lane to win the 30-lap race at the Sachsenring ahead of Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa.
Yamaha-rider Jorge Lorenzo was third with a strong performance that put him one place ahead of teammate Valentino Rossi. This was Lorenzo's first podium since his dramatic second place to Marquez at Mugello in June.
Marquez now leads the championship by 77 points over Pedrosa with Rossi in third and 84 points behind.
In Germany, Marquez stayed calm despite a traffic jam on pit lane at the end of the formation lap with a bunch riders making a dramatic switch to their spare bikes fitted with slick, dry tires.
He was joined by Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Rossi, Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Dovizioso and the Espargaro brothers Pol and Aleix.
A pre-race rain shower had seen all the top riders, except Germany's Stefan Bradl in position three on the front row, go to the grid with rain tires in anticipation of a wet race.
The rain never came but it was a roller-derby style start with riders squeezed five abreast in pit lane and jostling for position at the green flag.
But Marquez stayed clam and sliced through the pack, tagged by Pedrosa, to chase down runaway early leader Bradl.
By mid-race he was in control of the lead and his tight battle with Pedrosa eventually easing down to win by 1.4 seconds.
"Everybody came into the pits to change tires because we saw it was completely dry on the sighting lap," Marquez said.
"My strategy was to copy Dani and Valentino who are the main rivals for the championship. When I saw they headed to the pit lane I followed and we all changed to slicks and the rain did not come.
"It was nice at the beginning overtaking riders and then in the second part of the race I had a big battle with Dani, it was always 0.5s between us.
"I am really happy for this win and now it is time relax and recharge the body."
At 21 years and 146 days, Marquez is now the youngest rider to win nine consecutive races, taking the record from Mike Hailwood who was 24 years and 86 days in 1964 when he won the 9th of 12 race streak.
This is Marquez's 15th premier class win, equalling Alex Criville who was the first Spanish rider to win in the premier class world title in 1999.
He is the first rider to win the opening nine races of the season since Giacomo Agostini won first ten races of 1970.
