* Rookie

Jorge Martin sets an unstoppable pace to clinch victory in the German MotoGP Sprint race at Sachsenring.

Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller completed the podium while Marc Marquez’s unbeaten Sachsenring run ended with a meagre 11th place.

Starting from the outside of the front row, Miller propelled his KTM into the holeshot at turn 1 – but title leader and pole qualifier Bagnaia braved it out around the outside to retake the advantage.

While Bagnaia and Miller exchanged the lead in the opening laps, Martin worked his way forward from fourth, then pounced for the lead with a determined two-in-one move at the bottom of the Waterfall hill on lap 4 of 15.

The Pramac Ducati rider then set a pace not even Bagnaia could match for his second Sprint victory of the year.

The reigning world champion in turn edged away from Miller during the middle stages to ensure second place. Martin is now Bagnaia's nearest title rival, with Marco Bezzecchi finishing just seventh.

Miller took his RC16 to a third podium of the season, while team-mate Brad Binder and Johann Zarco attacked Luca Marini for fourth in the closing stages.

Zarco barged inside Binder for fifth at the ultra-fast waterfall corner on the last lap. The incident was put under investigation but no action was taken. Replays later showed that Binder had bumped Zarco wide on the opening lap.

After three falls this morning, Marc Marquez's quest for a twelfth successive Sachsenring win was already statistically on the ropes when he qualified seventh - having started no lower than fifth during his previous 125, Moto2 and MotoGP wins.

The Repsol Honda star held an early fifth but faded helplessly back to eleventh by the finish.

Although his Sachsenring victory run technically ended, the unofficial status of Sprint races means Marquez will get a second chance to continue his win streak in Sunday’s 30-lap Grand Prix. But he’ll need to make a huge step from his Sprint performance.

Likewise, Monster Yamaha riders Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli were never able to make an impression, finishing 13th and 14th.

Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro swerved across in front of Ducati's Enea Bastianini at the start, the chain reaction causing others to back off.

LCR's Takaaki Nakagami, who injured his hand yesterday, chose to race with the standard Honda chassis rather than Kalex design, which he took to just 17th.

Maverick Vinales crashed out at turn one in the closing stages, while Jonas Folger retired his GASGAS machine in the pits.

While the soft was the obvious rear tyre choice for the 15 laps, all but three riders (Zarco, Bezzecchi and Nakagami) steered clear of the medium front, jumping straight to the hard.

Germany was the nadir of Francesco Bagnaia's 2022 world championship season, slipping 91 points from Fabio Quartararo after an early fall before fighting back to take the title in the second half of the year. Bagnaia returns with a 21-point lead over Marco Bezzecchi.

Sachsenring is Marc Marquez’s most successful circuit, with eleven wins at the German Grand Prix, including eight in the MotoGP class. Absent last season due to arm surgery, when Quartararo took victory, Marquez hasn’t been beaten at the tight and twisty anti-clockwise circuit since 2009 in 125cc.

Marquez is riding alone at Repsol Honda with team-mate Joan Mir sidelined by a hand injury at Mugello last weekend. LCR Honda's Alex Rins is also absent after fracturing his right tibia and fibula in Italy. The COTA winner won't be fit to return until after the summer break. Rins' team-mate Takaaki Nakagami has been handed a Kalex chassis for the first time this weekend.

GASGAS Tech3’s Pol Espargaro has abandoned a planned return in Germany and is again replaced by KTM test rider Jonas Folger, meaning a home rider will be taking part in the premier class. Espargaro is also thought unlikely to be fit for next weekend's Assen round.

Older brother Aleix, diagnosed with two broken bones in his right heel after struggling with bicycle injuries throughout the Mugello weekend, limped away from a crash at turn one after just ten minutes.

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