SACHSENRING: Honda’s MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez won in Germany for the seventh year in a row, across all categories, on Sunday after a mid-race tyre gamble paid off.

The Spaniard forged 48 points clear at the top of the standings after Yamaha’s reigning champion and main rival Jorge Lorenzo finished a dismal 15th.

Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, on an LCR Honda, was second and 9.8 seconds behind with Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso third for Ducati. Italian great Valentino Rossi, Lorenzo’s team-mate, finished eighth.

Marquez, who celebrated wildly after the race, jumped up to 170 points overall, with Lorenzo lagging in second on 122 points.

Rossi, the Italian legend, is third on 111 points, with half the races in the season now gone and the riders heading off on a summer break for a month before the Austrian Grand Prix.

“I could not imagine [that I would be this far ahead], it is great,” the brilliant 23-year-old Marquez said, beaming broadly.

“I opened the gap in the last two races [he was second last time out in Assen] and I am in good confidence after a good first half of the season.

“Now I will have some quiet and go to the swimming pool.”

Marquez, who looks set for his third MotoGP title, started from pole but struggled early in the race, going off on Turn 8.

Rain showers had hit the track and it started as a wet race. But the surface started drying and Marquez went to the pits to switch to slicks on the 17th of 30 laps.

He then blazed to the lead with six laps remaining and never relinquished it.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2016