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Jorge Martin fended off a determined attack from Francesco Bagnaia to complete a German MotoGP double at the Sachsenring on Sunday.
The Pramac Ducati rider, who also had the edge over Bagnaia in the Sprint encounter, had to dig deep on a breathless final few laps, clinching victory on the line by only six hundredths of a second.
Martin has now closed the gap on Bagnaia at the top of the world championship to 16 points.
With nothing between them in the closing stages of the 30-lap race, the key moment came when Bagnaia touched Martin’s rear wheel at the final corner on the penultimate lap.
That cost the factory Lenovo Ducati rider three tenths and it proved decisive, with Bagnaia needing the final lap to close the deficit again.
He was right behind Martin at the last corner and came within a whisker of denying the Spaniard on the sprint to the line, but Martin narrowly got the verdict for the satellite team.
His Pramac Racing team-mate, Johann Zarco, claimed third, his job made easier after Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder made a rare mistake, crashing out of the final rostrum place while under increasing pressure from Zarco on lap 19 at Turn 8.
Australia’s Jack Miller grabbed the lead into the first corner at the start ahead of Bagnaia, Luca Marini (VR46 Ducati) and Martin.
Miller, though, was bumped back to fourth after he lost the rear on the way into the Waterfall turn, with Bagnaia, Marini and Martin taking advantage.
Martin then moved ahead into Turn 12, going underneath Bagnaia.
As he did in the Sprint race, he quickly opened a slight gap, lapping four tenths faster than Bagnaia.
Miller lost another few places, with team-mate Binder and Zarco getting past the KTM rider, who seemed to struggle to defend his line at the Waterfall corner.
With Martin and Bagnaia setting a hot pace, Binder was on the move and made his way through to third, passing Marini into Turn 12 on lap 10.
Martin’s advantage was 0.6s over Bagnaia, who had 1.6s in hand over Binder and Marini.
Zarco was now beginning to force his way into the mix, taking fourth from Marini on lap 12.
At the front, Martin’s cushion was being eroded by Bagnaia, who was visibly closing the deficit to the Pramac rider.
Martin, though, responded and briefly stretched his lead again to four tenths, but Bagnaia came back again to close onto his rear wheel.
The reigning world champion then hit the front with a clean move into Turn 12 after lining up the pass through the Waterfall turn.
Bagnaia stayed ahead until lap 24, when Martin went back into the lead at Turn 12.
Zarco was up to third after Binder’s crash, with VR46 Ducati riders Marini and Marco Bezzecchi locked in battle for fourth.
As the race reached a climax, Bagnaia was trying all he could to find an opening, but his chance was effectively gone when he made contact with Martin’s back wheel into the final corner at the end of the penultimate lap.
Bagnaia managed to recover on the last circuit, but it was too late to make a move, even though he almost pipped Martin as they blasted towards the line.
Martin’s official winning margin was only 0.064s, with Zarco in third, seven seconds behind the top two.
Bezzecchi prevailed in his personal duel with Marini for fourth, with Miller rounding out the top six.
Alex Marquez was seventh on the Gresini Ducati ahead of Enea Bastianini (Lenovo Ducati).
Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati) and Miguel Oliveira 9 (RNF Aprilia) were the top ten.
Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo were 12th and 13th respectively on the factory Yamaha M1 machines, while Japan’s Takaaki Nakagami – Honda’s sole rider in the race – was 14th on the LCR machine.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez withdrew from the race after fracturing a finger in morning warm-up, which was the Spanish rider’s fifth crash of the weekend.
Aprilia Racing’s Maverick Viñales was forced out with an engine failure. His team-mate, Aleix Espargaro, crossed the line in 16th.
