MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

How do you judge an event like the Sachsenring? It is one of the most popular events on the calendar, with over 98,400 fans turning up on Sunday, a little shy of the record 101,000 who saw the races in 2011 and 2007, and a record 92,654 fans in the grandstands on Saturday. The promoter and organization are passionate about the event, and for the Sachsenring circuit, it is easily the most important weekend of the year, and generates many millions of euros in revenue for the local region.

A spokesperson for the ADAC - the German automotive association who are the promoter for the event - said that MSEG had told them that the Sachsenring was the only circuit they would consider allowing the German GP to be organized. There is no other circuit in Germany that could run the event so smoothly and ensure the same massive crowds would attend the races.

The Sachsenring MotoGP sprint race was a reminder that we have been spoiled in the first half of 2026. The sprint races have been uncharacteristically thrilling and eventful. So I suppose it was only a matter of time before reality struck again, and a sprint race turned boring again. Marc Márquez held off his brother Alex Márquez fairly comfortably, while Fabio Di Giannantonio got close but could never make a move. It was an all-Ducati sprint podium for the second time this year. There were moments of tension, but no real excitement.

There are lots of reasons why Saturday's sprint race was less than gripping. Firstly, the concept of MotoGP sprint races is flawed. Because the sprint is always half the full race distance, that makes them relatively predictable. They form a solid basis for working on the Sunday race, and the teams go into them with relatively few unknowns. WorldSBK's Superpole race format - 10 laps, whether those be 3.5 km laps or 5.5 kms laps, 1'20 laps or 2'00 laps - mixes things up much more.

We learned at Balaton Park that we can't take Marc Márquez at his word. When asked in the pre-event press conference on Thursday if he thought he might be able to fight for the podium, he rejected the idea outright. "No, forget it. If I fight for the win or for the podium, it means that the others are doing something not in a good way." He then proceeded to put pressure on the rider sat right next to him, Aprilia's Marco Bezzecchi. "Now, especially Marco but also [Jorge] Martin and other riders are in another level, and as they showed to me in Mugello, they are much faster."

Márquez then went on to lead every lap of the sprint race, and most of the main GP on Sunday, winning both races by well over a second. Afterward, he admitted that after the first few laps at Balaton Park he realized he had a chance to win, and focused his energy on doing just that, playing down his chances at every opportunity.

We are in the most frustrating part of MotoGP Silly Season. We know pretty much for certain who will be on 19 of MotoGP's 22 seats. 13 of those signings have already been announced. But neither the riders whose new contract has been announced nor the riders who are still waiting for their new contracts to be announced can say very much.

Take Jorge Martin. Yamaha have already announced he will be racing for them in 2027, the press release being issued between Assen and the Sachsenring. But when asked about it in the press conference in Germany, he replied only in platitudes. "I don't want to go really deep into it, but I always take decisions that I think are best for me, for my family, and for my future," he said.

His future teammate Ai Ogura said something similar when asked about his future in the factory Yamaha team. "There are so many things so I'm not going to explain here. I just saw this as a good thing for me, so that's why I decided to do it," he said.

The problem with asking riders who are moving about what they expect from their new employers is that they have an existing contract with their current employer, and that contract usually restricts what they can actually say. After all, any praise for the team they are heading to implicitly contains criticism of their current manufacturer, and he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Best left unsaid

MotoGP is on a run of historic tracks at the moment. From Brno, which has seen grand prix motorcycle racing since the 1960s, to Assen, which celebrated 101 years of racing at the track, to the Sachsenring, where motorcycle racing of one form or another has been held since 1927, making it nearly as ancient as Assen.

Hohenstein-Ernstthal, the small town in the German state of Saxony, played host to what was known as the East German Grand Prix from 1961 to 1972, and drew massive crowds, in the hundreds and thousands. Anyone attending the race at the Sachsenring should find time to visit the Textil und Rennsportmuseum, or Textile and Racing Museum. An odd combination, perhaps, but a great way to get a sense of the history of the circuit, and the area.

The museum has photos of the unbelievable masses of spectators who would throng the roads that formed the old street circuit, with fans perched on precariously balanced seats raised many meters above the crowds. Several hundred thousand people would come out to see the races.