Pits to victory for Marquez in Germany

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• Marc Marquez wins 9 in a row after rain prompts 14 riders to start the German MotoGP from pit lane.
• Stefan Bradl is only leading rider to correctly choose slick tyres but cannot reach full dry pace.
• Jorge Lorenzo puts Assen misery behind him with third position.

A bizarre start to the German MotoGP ended with Marc Marquez completing a perfect nine-in-a-row win streak as the opening half of the 2014 season came to a conclusion at the Sachsenring on Sunday.

Rain before the start prompted most riders choose wet tyres, but the drying track saw the majority of them then rush into the pits at the end of the formation lap, switch to their dry bikes and line-up at the end of pit lane!

Home star Stefan Bradl was the only leading rider to have correctly selected slicks and one of only nine riders to start the race from the actual grid.

However the LCR Honda rider couldn't make the most of his advantage due to wet settings having been applied to his dry bike and was caught by Repsol Honda riders Marquez and Dani Pedrosa within six laps.

Marquez and Pedrosa then broke away from the rest of the field, Pedrosa doggedly sticking with Marquez until ten laps to go. At that point Pedrosa's resistance rapidly collapsed and a further moment saw Marquez eventually win by 1.466s

The wet/dry start conditions were something of a worse-case scenario for Jorge Lorenzo, who admitted to being 'scared' when riding on slicks in light rain at Assen, but the Spaniard soon ramped up his pace at the Sachsenring.

Having overtaken Movistar Yamaha team-mate Rossi, Lorenzo passed Bradl for third position on lap 10 of 30. However Pedrosa and Marquez were already five seconds clear and Lorenzo was unable to close in on the factory RCV riders.

Rossi, an impressive Andrea Iannone (Pramac Ducati) and Aleix Espargaro (Forward Yamaha) had likewise reached their final finishing positions of fourth, fifth and sixth by the midway stage.

But there was a battle for seventh during the closing stages with Cal Crutchlow passing his factory Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso at the same Waterfall corner where he had fallen in qualifying, only for Tech 3 Yamaha rookie Pol Espargaro to overtake them both.

The trio continued to fight to the line, with Crutchlow losing out as he dropped to tenth place, behind Espargaro, Dovizioso and Gresini Honda's Alvaro Bautista.

Scott Redding was the top Open Honda rider in eleventh for Aspar, while Hiroshi Aoyama, Nicky Hayden, Karel Abraham and Danilo Petrucci completed the scorers.

The unlucky Bradl was left to finish in 16th place. The Germans will hope for better luck in the football tonight.

After four falls in practice, and stiches in his leg, Bradley Smith took a further tumble in the race, remounting to 19th on a day when Michael Laverty - second to Bradl at the end of the opening lap - was the only non-finisher.

MotoGP now heads for its mid-season summer break, with the action resuming at Indianapolis on August 8-10.

German MotoGP:
1. Marc Marquez
2. Dani Pedrosa
3. Jorge Lorenzo
4. Valentino Rossi
5. Andrea Iannone
6. Aleix Espargaro
7. Pol Espargaro
8. Andrea Dovizioso
9. Alvaro Bautista
10. Cal Crutchlow
11. Scott Redding
12. Hiroshi Aoyama
13. Karel Abraham
14. Nicky Hayden
15. Danilo Petrucci
16. Stefan Bradl
17. Yonny Hernandez
18. Hector Barbera
19. Bradley Smith
20. Colin Edwards
21. Broc Parkes
22. Mike Di Meglio
Michael Laverty