The worry lines of the best MotoGP rider of all time except for his compatriot Giacomo Agostini in his last season as a works’ rider with Monster Energy Yamaha have not diminished this season as a private rider. If he is unable to convince neither in Saxony nor in Assen, many expect his resignation to be announced at the end of this season.

The hour of probation for Marquez and Rossi in Saxony

After 10th place in Mugello and the annoying fall at the Catalan Grand Prix, according to Valentino Rossi, the only possible last hope for him to save the continuation of his career is the Grand Prix of Germany and the Netherlands. Of course, the old master can postpone his “grace period” until later, but he is still under tremendous pressure with regard to his reputation. After his worst season in the premier class, results are needed, otherwise the Italian will become another Freddie Spencer, who after glorious years was only a shadow of himself. The man from Shreveport in Louisiana would have retired better after 1985, when he was the last world champion in both the 500 and 250cc classes. Meanwhile, a large part of the fans of the most popular driver of all time have exactly this fear about the fall of the career for Rossi.

Marc Marquez on the Repsol Honda in a difficult position – the former “king of saves” is currently more of the crash king, which he impressively demonstrated with 4 falls in the last 3 races. A clear indication that his magic of the earlier years has vanished into thin air and that he no longer seems to have a feeling for the limit.

Almost more extreme – the challenge for the “King of the Sachsenring”
We were there when the man from Catalonia remarked with a wink about the course in Hohenstein-Ernstthal for the German Grand Prix and said that he felt as comfortable there as the Germans in Mallorca. But now the absolute acid test follows for the Honda hopefuls. After five races for the record winner in Saxony the closed season is finally over, now results are needed. The balance sheet since 2015 is shown below for clarity, whereby Marc Marquez had also won the two races before and was thus victorious at every MotoGP start at the Sachsenring. You can see this in the statistics below, which also contain the winners of the middle and smallest class. There you can also see that he had already been victorious three times in Moto2 and up to 125cc.

The intermediate result in the MotoGP World Championship

Marquez and Rossi in absolute no man’s land, that has never been done before. Neither of them should have anything to do with the outcome of the World Cup. The only question now is whether the two arch-rivals can at least polish up their underground balance sheet a bit, or whether they can still slow down their plunge into sporting insignificance. Nobody wants to hear excuses any more, it’s only about justifying their reputation halfway. It can no longer tolerate many mishaps, otherwise the term embarrassingly gains more and more justification when it comes to the description of your services. There is no doubt that the two had imagined differently this season. The supposed experts who had claimed before his comeback that Marquez would be there again from the beginning have in any case now completely exposed themselves to ridicule. Let’s wait for the German GP first, then we’ll go into it again if the Spaniard doesn’t finally improve.

The schedule for the next ghost race on the Sachsenring

>GP Germany preview: see separate report on this page.

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