Not even the chaos of a mass ‘motocross-style’ pitlane start could prevent MotoGP champion Marc Marquez completing a perfect nine race win-streak at Sachsenring, in Germany, on Sunday.

The Repsol Honda star will head into the summer break with a perfect 225 points, a massive 77 more than team-mate and nearest rival Dani Pedrosa.

Marquez beat Pedrosa by 1.4s in Germany, the pair being among 14 riders to dive into pit lane at the end of the formation lap, having realised that wet tyres were a mistake on the rapidly drying track.

“I thought the race would begin like Assen [on wet tyres] but then I saw it was drying really quickly,” explained Marquez. “I was on the limit between putting slicks and keeping rain tyres.

“Then I saw (Stefan) Bradl put slicks and maybe that was the best option, but my strategy was just to copy Dani and Valentino (Rossi) because they are my main opponents for the championship. They put wet tyres, I followed them. On the warm-up lap they went into the pits, so I followed them!”

Queued up tightly, the pit lane starters were released en masse once the other riders had reached turn one, with Marquez and Pedrosa heading the pursuit.

“It was like a Motocross start, everybody very tight, with the elbows out,” smiled Marquez. “It was nice, but a little bit dangerous too because I think for everybody when we pushed for the brakes, the carbon brakes did not stop the bike. That was maybe the most dangerous, at the first corner. It also maybe looked a little bit strange on TV but it was nice from there on.”

Home star Stefan Bradl was the only rider to correctly predict slicks, but a wet bias to his set-up meant he was passed by Marquez and Pedrosa within six of the 30 laps. Marquez then broke Pedrosa’s challenge with ten laps to go.

“I managed the situation at the beginning when it was quite dangerous, but in the end everything was completely dry and our rhythm was like FP4 and the warm-up,” said Marquez.

To make things worse for his beleaguered rivals, Marquez was far from physically fit this weekend.

“All weekend I didn’t feel so powerful because on Wednesday I had a fever. So high. Then I took antibiotic and after two antibiotics your body feels a bit tired,” explained Marquez, who also hurt his neck in a nasty Friday morning highside. “Already before the race I felt tired, but on the bike I was able to forget and push 100 percent.”

Marquez is the first rider to win the opening nine races of the year since Italian Giacomo Agostini won the opening 10 grands prix in 1970. Australian Mick Doohan also won successive races in 1997, although not the first 10.

“This first half of the season for me is perfect, especially because I won every race and in qualifying I’ve stayed on the front row every time,” reflected Marquez. “I’m really happy with the job of the team too, they’ve helped me a lot especially in the first races when I arrived without pre-season testing [after breaking his leg in the winter].

“They did a great job and now everything is going well. The job is done, so now we can go for the summertime with the mentality free.”

But before that, Marquez and Pedrosa will head for a test session at Brno.

“The holiday will be a bit shorter because we have the Brno test, but it will be important for the race to find a base set-up and also try some things on the bike. At that circuit you always get very good testing information. Then we will do minimum of one week completely free, then prepare or Indianapolis.”

German GP race result:

1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 41m 47.664s
   2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 41m 49.130s
   3. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 41m 57.981s
   4. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 42m 6.858s
   5. Andrea Iannone ITA Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 42m 11.173s
   6. Aleix Espargaro ESP NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 42m 15.473s
   7. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 42m 20.917s
   8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 42m 21.532s
   9. Alvaro Bautista ESP Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RC213V) 42m 21.895s
   10. Cal Crutchlow GBR Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 42m 22.340s
   11. Scott Redding GBR Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RCV1000R)* 42m 25.408s
   12. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 42m 32.682s
   13. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing (RCV1000R) 42m 32.841s
   14. Nicky Hayden USA Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 42m 34.340s
   15. Danilo Petrucci ITA IodaRacing Project (ART) 42m 40.433s
   16. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V) 42m 41.553s
   17. Yonny Hernandez COL Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 42m 42.140s
   18. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing (Avintia) 42m 43.879s
   19. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 42m 43.957s
   20. Colin Edwards USA NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 42m 51.747s
   21. Broc Parkes AUS Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART)* 42m 58.592s
   22. Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing (Avintia)* 43m 7.639s
2. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) DNF

World Championships standings: