Here it is! Jorge Martín wins Sprint in Germany where he had a strong “ally” in the fight for the title, with Miguel Oliveira doing brilliantly and finishing second and holding off the Italian! Fantastic race from the Portuguese!
The race started with Bagnaia in the spotlight and attacking straight away, moving from fourth to first. Miguel Oliveira remained in second place but would later be overtaken by Martín after the Spaniard prepared the attack from the inside in a straight line, which resulted in the overtaking being confirmed shortly afterwards.
🚦LIGHTS OUT in the #TissotSprint! 🚦@PeccoBagnaia TAKES THE LEAD from 4th on the grid 🚀#GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/8mvBTQQHOl
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) July 6, 2024
Bagnaia was leading and had Martín following him, with 0.066s, and it was no surprise that the Spaniard would confirm the overtaking, but Bagnaia’s problems didn’t stop there: Oliveira, coming from behind, also hit the Italian with a maneuver on the inside and took over. so second place again.
👏 @_moliveira88 THROUGH!
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) July 6, 2024
Great move by the Portuguese rider on @PeccoBagnaia to take 2nd 📈#GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/JjIhMwAtkU
Martín was trying to escape and benefited from Oliveira’s battle with Bagnaia and in the blink of an eye gained almost 4 tenths, being 0.394s behind.
With 11 laps to go Oliveira began to close the gap and set the fastest lap at the time, at 1:20.609s.
With a third of the race done, the top five looked like this:
Enea Bastianini was growing, already in fourth, while Maverick Viñales, despite the huge crash in Q2, was also in good shape, less than 1s from the lead.
Bagnaia was on the attack and didn’t want to let Oliveira escape and at any moment he could effectively try the maneuver: 0.136s separated the world champion from Oliveira. Martín now had 0.444s over the Portuguese.
Slightly behind, Franco Morbidelli reached fifth place and relegated Viñales to sixth. Marc Márquez was seventh, Brad Binder was eighth, Álex Márquez was ninth and R. Fernández was already tenth.
With six laps still to run Martín was now 0.644s ahead of Oliveira, who was in turn 0.248s faster than Bagnaia.
Two laps later Bagnaia picked up the pace and gained 0.2s over Oliveira and apparently continues to gain ground. It would certainly be a fight until the end between two rivals who know each other well from the lower categories.
If Martín was leading, now with 1.017s over Oliveira, the Portuguese did not want to be left behind in the fight for second place and slightly recovered part of the gap to Bagnaia, now at 0.401s.
At the start of the last lap, only a disaster could take away Martín’s victory and Oliveira’s second place, who had everything he needed to get back on the podium!
The race then ended with Martín confirming his return to winning ways and with Oliveira also returning to good results, finishing second. Portuguese was a valuable help for Martín. Bagnaia was third.