ROAD RACE
MOTOGP / FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 8 / JULY 13-15, 2018
SACHSENRING / HOHENSTEIN-ERNSTTHAL, GERMANY
P48
CLOUD
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
"E
very year, it gets more
and more difficult." So
said Marc Marquez,
and it was the voice of experi-
ence. The championship leader
had dominated the German GP
at the Sachsenring every year
for the previous eight, in all three
classes (his wins coming in 125,
Moto2 and MotoGP). In 2018,
in the ninth race of the year and
the 99th of his MotoGP career,
he did it again for win number
nine.
Marquez started from pole in
continued heat and sunshine,
and finished with his Repsol
Honda better than two seconds
ahead of the rest, after a race
that had been close, until he
decided it was time to stop nurs-
ing his unusual choice of a soft
rear tire.
By then, tire wear had started
some serious shuffling, and put
some pre-race favorites out to
grass—specifically both factory
Ducatis. Jorge Lorenzo had led
12 of 30 laps of the hectic and
compact 2.28-mile circuit in the
former East Germany. He alone
