Because nothing is ever predictable in MotoGP, the sunshine appeared after soaking the Championship riders all week in Germany. With a dry track ahead of them, teams had to gamble, guess, and pray on bike setups for Sunday’s race. With that, we got to see some new riders near the top of the pack, but it was the usual suspects+1 who were the real show stoppers.
Fiat-Yamaha managed another 1-2 victory Sunday, after their 1-2 qualifying stunt on Saturday. Like the day before, it was Rossi who lead Lorenzo by a slim margin, just 1/10th of a second. Casey Stoner was in the hunt too, and lead most of the race until a rear-tire issue caused him to fall behind the pace.
Dani Pedrosa was also up in the mix. Hot off his Seca win, Pedrosa finished on the bottom podium step, also citing issues with his tires for holding him back from a GP victory.
“A podium is good, but I think that we could have won. We were strong enough to win, but I had a front tire problem when I was going fast. My teammate seemed to have a big problem with it, so I’m happy to have got on the podium, but anyway I thought that today we could have been faster.”
On the other Repsol Honda, Dovizioso found his third DNF in row, completing one of the most unwelcomed hat-tricks in the sport. After battling with his tires, Dovi focused on finishing the race, which had only 5 laps remaining. But, an electrical issue with his RSV212V forced the young rider out of the race.
The Sachsenring was kind however to the Honda Gresini team, with De Angelis and Elias taking 5th and 6th place respectively. Elias, despite finishing behind his teammate, probably had the ride of the race, having started from the very last position on the grid. He and De Angelis are now tied in the Championship standings with 47 points each.
Race Results from MotoGP at Sachsenring, Germany:
Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Time | Diff |
1 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | YAMAHA | 41’21.769 | |
2 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | YAMAHA | 41’21.868 | 0.099 |
3 | 3 | Dani PEDROSA | HONDA | 41’24.668 | 2.899 |
4 | 27 | Casey STONER | DUCATI | 41’31.995 | 10.226 |
5 | 15 | Alex DE ANGELIS | HONDA | 41’43.291 | 21.522 |
6 | 24 | Toni ELIAS | HONDA | 41’52.621 | 30.852 |
7 | 33 | Marco MELANDRI | KAWASAKI | 41’53.070 | 31.301 |
8 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | DUCATI | 41’53.495 | 31.726 |
9 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | YAMAHA | 41’54.634 | 32.865 |
10 | 52 | James TOSELAND | YAMAHA | 42’05.695 | 43.926 |
11 | 65 | Loris CAPIROSSI | SUZUKI | 42’19.144 | 57.375 |
12 | 88 | Niccolo CANEPA | DUCATI | 42’22.308 | 1’00.539 |
13 | 7 | Chris VERMEULEN | SUZUKI | 42’25.414 | 1’03.645 |
14 | 36 | Mika KALLIO | DUCATI | 42’25.924 | 1’04.155 |
15 | 41 | Gabor TALMACSI | HONDA | 41’22.338 | 1 lap |
Not Classified | |||||
4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | HONDA | 35’10.150 | 5 laps | |
Not finished first lap | |||||
14 | Randy DE PUNIET | HONDA |
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