Alex Marquez (2nd) back on the podium: “Riding in safety mode”

Alex Marquez had already shown in qualifying that he could be among the frontrunners again at the Sachsenring. With a time of 1:19.102, he finished second, just six hundredths behind his brother and Grand Prix icon Marc, who, as expected, took pole position. Behind them, Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the front row. The top three from qualifying crossed the finish line in the same order in the 15-lap sprint.

In the sprint, with the grid slightly staggered for the first time, Alex held on to his second place on the grid for the full distance. Although he was only a few tenths behind his brother throughout the race, there was never a serious challenge. Particularly in the final sector, Marc repeatedly managed to pull slightly clear thanks to his strong technique in left-hand corners, whilst Alex was able to close the gap in the right-hand corners. Towards the end, he also had to keep an eye on the fast-approaching Fabio Di Giannantonio – a final challenge to the world champion from within his own family failed to materialise.

After the race, Alex Márquez spoke about the final sprint before the summer break: “I tried to give my best on every lap and in every corner. I just wanted to survive because it was quite slippery.” Physically, he said, he wasn’t yet able to push 100 per cent for an entire race: “I still need to stay in safe mode a bit and I’m not riding quite right because I’m still a bit too tense.” Nevertheless, he drew a positive conclusion from the sprint: “It was a good race. Second behind Marc, right on his tail; on the third lap I even closed the gap a bit. I’m happy – this is the result I needed after the crash in Barcelona.”

The podium finish marks the provisional end to an ordeal over the past few weeks: at the Catalan Grand Prix, Alex Márquez suffered a heavy crash, sustaining a fracture to his seventh cervical vertebra as well as a broken collarbone, and was forced to miss Mugello and Balaton Park. He made his comeback at Assen with a fifth-place finish, but had also been thrown off his Ducati quite violently early on there. Following his second place in the Sprint, he remains in ninth place in the World Championship with 87 points.

Topic of the week

From major doubts to a major spectacle: why GP fans have reason to be delighted

Before the start of the season, critical voices dominated, but the World Championship rounds so far have shown that the rule changes are delivering exactly what was hoped for: excitement right up to the final lap.

Vanessa Georgoulas

Read more

TV program

Tomorrow

Sachsenring: International Livestream - Sonntag

MotoGP World Championship

12.07.2026 - 09:35

Alex Marquez auf der Verfolgung von Bruder und Sieger Marc Marquez

Foto: Gold and Goose