David Emmett

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."

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 thri

Standings for the World Superbike class after the Superpole race at Donington:

Championship standings for the Moto2 class after the German GP:

Championship standings for the World Supersport class after the UK round at Donington:

Round 11 of 2026 MotoGP is done and dusted, and as predicted, Marc Marquez ruled the roost at the Sachsenring. Adam and David are joined by Neil at the Sachsenring for their takeaways on another record-breaking Grand Prix this year. Whether it is fair to say that nobody wants to win the 2026 MotoGP championship, how key fallers paved the way for a championship reshuffle, how Ai Ogura continues to get better every race, plus our winners and losers, plus grades for a full house in Hohenstein-Ernstthal.

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.

KTM's reliability problems have been prominent throughout the 2026 MotoGP season. Engines have cut out and stopped working on multiple occasions, with the Austrian factory blaming a range of issues for the problems. A clutch issue for Brad Binder in Austria, multiple electronics problems, as well as blown engines.

The summer break is upon us, but there are still one or two small bits of news emerging from the MotoGP paddock. The first was something of a surprise: Ducati announced that after the German GP at the Sachsenring, Pecco Bagnaia underwent arm pump surgery on his right arm. The procedure was a fasciotomy, where they cut open the sheaths encasing the the muscles in the forearm, rather than a more rigorous fasciectomy, where they remove them.

It has been an incredibly busy first half of the year in MotoGP, and a very busy year for me. I traveled to the Sachsenring, the final MotoGP round before the summer break by motorcycle with my wife, and we are slowly wending our way home through Germany. I have said this before, but it bears repeating: an utterly charming and deeply underrated holiday destination, and a great place to ride motorcycles, especially at the leisurely pace my wife and I prefer when traveling together.