Friday - Cold tyres at the Waterfall
After Assen most of the MotoGP™ World Championship was hoping for a nice dry weekend in Germany. From Friday it was clear that this wouldn’t be the case and while it didn’t rain heavily on the opening day of practice, conditions were less than ideal. Turn 11 at the Sachsenring is difficult at the best of times, but the cool conditions of Friday caught several riders out.
Turn 11 is a clear demonstration of the unique demands imposed by the Sachsenring, it is one of just three right hand bends. As a result Michelin debuted their asymmetric front tyre. motogp.com’s Dylan Gray was on hand to explain exactly how Michelin approached the challenge.
Saturday - The sun returns
Unfortunately for Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), his struggles continued even when the sun did break through on Saturday. For the first time in his career he had to battle it out in Q1, just sliding into Q2 after a crash. Uncharacteristically for Lorenzo, his crash was followed by a second fall in Q2.
While Lorenzo struggled, Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) cruised to pole position and looked on track to continue his perfect record in Germany. He’d made it seven poles in seven years, but could he make it seven wins?
Sunday - Dancing in the rain
It’s been a while since the World Championship has seen anyone as strong as Khairul Idham Pawi (Honda Team Asia) in the wet. The second wet Moto3™ race of the year produced the rookie’s second win, again walking the field. He was simply untouchable.
Sunday not only brought race day, but also the announcement of a new circuit on the MotoGP™ World Championship World Championship calendar. For the first time since 1982, the championship will head to Finland in 2018 to race at the new KymiRing.
The weather couldn’t dampen the excitement for the GoPro Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland. It had already been an incredible season and everything suggested that round nine would be no different.
In 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014 Marc Marquez held the points lead after the German GP and on all four occasions he went on to take the title. He’s leading the points table again in 2016, will the same statistic hold true? The Spaniard seems unable to put a foot wrong, even moments that should have ruled him out of contention, such as his off-track excursion during the German GP, turn around and see him come out on top.
A turbulent race saw Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) return to the podium for the first time since Argentina in 2015. After a slow start due to the harder tyres, Crutchlow was a man on a mission and charged through the field. His pass on Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) was even more impressive…
Sunday’s race was dominated by two stories: Marquez’s incredible victory and Yamaha’s struggles. Neither Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) nor Jorge Lorenzo lived up to their own expectations and head into the summer break looking for a boost to their title challenges.
As ever Dylan Gray looked back at the entire weekend in After The Flag, paying particular attention to the tyre strategies of various riders.