Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Joan Mir scored his third podium of the season with second place at the German Grand Prix with Alex Marquez a brave 13th.

A hard fought 28 lap German GP was raced on a warm and humid day at the twisting and physically exhausting 3.6km Sachsenring.

Mir showed he is the star rookie of Moto2 with his second place the best result of the season so far. Mir surged from eighth at the start to lead on lap six before settling in second place on lap 11 and then challenging winner Brad Binder for the top step on the podium right to the finish.

The race was an exhausting challenge for Marquez who was battered and bruised after a heavy fall in Saturday’s FP3 session. Marquez was briefly fourth on the opening lap, having started seventh, and then was part of fierce six rider battle for the top ten.

Although thirteenth at the finish Marquez was just 1.9s out of eighth place.

This was Mir’s fifth top five finish in nine races and moved him to fourth in the championship standings with 95 points. Marquez holds third position with 113 points.

Joan Mir: 2nd, + 0.779

“I am super happy for this result, we are making progress and the good  results are coming. I was pushing hard all the race and trying to put pressure on Brad Binder but congratulations to him, he did an amazing job. I had a good pace all weekend and even though qualifying was not the best I knew I had the potential to fight for the podium and that’s how it urned out.”

Alex Marquez: 13th, +17.458

“I suffered a lot right front first lap especially with the rear tyre so I’m not sure if something went wrong and my focus was then just to control everything and finish the race. I pushed 100% but I started to suffer more from the halfway point so it was a difficult race. I don’t like to finish the first half of the season like this but I know we have the summer break to recover and go again.”