Racing

MotoGP: German Sunshine Heats up Championship

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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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