Alex Marquez believes MotoGP’s new starting grid rules made it quite difficult for riders to gain position at the start of the German Grand Prix sprint.

The Gresini rider lined up second on the grid for Saturday’s half-distance race at the Sachsenring but was unable to get the jump on his brother Marc Marquez, who led comfortably from pole position on his factory Ducati. 

There were few changes elsewhere inside the top 10, with Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura briefly passing Fabio di Giannantonio into Turn 1 and Aprilia’s Jorge Martin making a move on Francesco Bagnaia later in the lap.

The relatively quiet start to the sprint came after MotoGP made a major change to the grid formation this weekend, with the distance between each rider increased from three to four metres.

This revision was made on safety grounds following a crash-heavy Catalan GP, where Johann Zarco suffered a major knee injury after his leg got collected in Francesco Bagnaia’s Ducati at the restart.

Alex Marquez, who himself got injured in the same Barcelona race through no fault of his own, said the new start rules severely limited overtaking opportunities at the start.

“My idea was to attack him on the start, but now with the new rules that we have more space between riders and more space between lines, it's quite difficult to gain position,” he explained.

“If the other one didn't make a big mistake, it's so impossible to arrive even in parallel.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Following an uneventful opening lap, the Sachsenring race quickly descended into a procession, with Marc Marquez successfully holding off his brother through the remaining laps.

Alex Marquez himself came under pressure from VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio on the final tour, but the latter never came close enough to attempt a move.

There were no major changes outside the top three either, with Ogura finishing fourth and Martin unable to pass Fernandez, who was compromised by back pain after suffering a compression shock in qualifying.

Di Giannantonio believes the lack of action was primarily down to the track layout, which made it harder for riders to follow each other without compromising their tyre life. 

“We know that this track is really, really difficult to overtake on,” he said. “Once you go just behind another rider, the front tyre gets temperature, and with all the corners being in the angle, it's really difficult to keep the pace and then try to overtake. You can do it, but it's pretty risky.

“So I had to do the move on Ogura at the beginning to try to be there, but then I tried to have a little space in the middle of the race to save the front tyre, but it was not enough for the end. It was just too risky to overtake Alex.”

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team

The Italian said the situation was made worse by the fact that he felt quicker than race winner Marquez, who was unable to push at full capacity due to his physical limitations.

“I had better speed to go faster,” he said. “It's 100% true that Marc was not pushing 100%. I think Marc had something more on the pace, but he was controlling, but it's normal. 

“For us, I was there trying to be with them, but then when you are behind, it really becomes a nightmare to just keep the pace. Even if you are faster, you cannot keep the pace, so you really need some room.”

Di Giannantonio explained that he deliberately dropped back a few tenths behind Alex Marquez to run in clean air, as following a rider too closely left his bike on the “edge”.

“You can do different lines to try to save the rear tyre, but then whatever you do to save the rear tyre, it destroys the front tyre a little,” he said.

“When you are behind a rider almost three-fourths of the lap, just behind, full in the edge, it's really difficult then to save it. So once you arrive pretty close, you have just the front moving all the time.

“It was a bit strange to race like this, but it's like this, so we need to adapt, and we need to try to do something better for tomorrow to try to attack.”

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