Marc Marquez: What changes in the Ducati garage after Sachsenring

Ducati smiles again before the summer break, after a MotoGP season start in which the title chase seemed compromised by Aprilia’s surge. The victory at the Sachsenring brings Marc Marquez back to the front, ready to defend the world crown he won last year with the Red bike.

It seemed an impossible comeback, but with Marc Marquez anything can happen. After Bezzecchi’s success at Mugello, the Cervera phenomenon was more than a hundred points behind the championship leader. For many, the World Championship was already written, with the Noale factory the clear favorite to seize the MotoGP throne. Instead, after the Italian round everything changed, despite the surgery Marc underwent after the Le Mans GP, brought forward due to a left foot injury. It was a double operation, where doctors reopened the wound on his arm to remove a more than bothersome screw. As in 2022, the risky choice paid off.

The comeback began at Balaton Park, with a double win that earned him 37 points in one weekend, coinciding with Bezzecchi’s double zero. The gap had already shrunk to 72 points. Same story at Brno, where Marquez took the podium in the MotoGP Sprint and another triumph in the Sunday race. The Ducati champion had gained another place in the standings, moving to -40 from the top.

At Assen the nine-time champion had to play defense and limit the damage, waiting for his lucky charm circuit, the Sachsenring. There he scored another double and another 27 crucial points to reopen the world title race, even overtaking the injured Bezzecchi. Now the Ducati rider is third, 18 points behind leader Jorge Martin and -4 from the resurgent Ai Ogura. There are still 400 points up for grabs until the end of the MotoGP season. The game is on. Above all, never count out the king.

Ducati heads into the summer break with the 2026 MotoGP title no longer an impossible goal. Davide Tardozzi, Ducati Lenovo team manager, urges caution and hopes for a full physical recovery of the Catalan superstar during the break. "Marc is very strong mentally, but we will face problems in the next race after the break, because Silverstone will be a track where the Aprilias will be very fast. We must remain calm and focus on the championship, even if it’s still a long way off," he told AS.

Manuel Poggiali, Ducati rider coach, was thrilled with Marquez’s performance in Germany. "The standings speak for themselves. It’s true we were many points behind, but it’s also true that in such a long championship anything is possible. There are moments during the season when you have to know how to suffer and moments when you have to win... Marc is like a cat, he has nine lives, or even more than a cat. The extraordinary thing about him is his ability to endure and to gift us extraordinary victories like this one."

Gigi Dall’Igna wasn’t at the Sachsenring, as he was celebrating his 60th birthday with his family. There couldn’t have been a better gift for him. Stepping in was sporting director Mauro Grassilli. "Going on vacation with this result is very nice: for morale, for the standings, for the brand, for the team, for the locker room," he told the microphones of the Spanish newspaper Marca. "It was a good thing to undergo the operation, everything he did, taking some time. Now we’re trying to reap what we sowed in the first part of the season."

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