2008 MotoGP Championship - Sachsenring Circuit, Germany

Text and Photos Courtesy MotoGP, Ducati Corse, Kawasaki, Suzuki Racing, Yamaha Racing and World Superbike.  Edited by webBikeWorld.com staff.

More:  Qualifying (Below)  |  Race Preview (Below)

Race Results
Casey Stoner paid tribute to his team after picking up his third consecutive winner's trophy and his fourth of the season at Sachsenring.

It was another extraordinary performance from the Australian in torrentially wet conditions, which saw several riders crash, including Ducati rider Marco Melandri.

The Italian was in the process of a stunning charge through the field and had made his way up to seventh place from sixteenth on the grid, only to crash moments after setting the fastest lap of the race.

Stoner, who started from pole, was fourth in the first turn but quickly made his way to second after passes on Colin Edwards and Andrea Dovizioso.  He then waited patiently until the tires were up to temperature before stepping up the pace and when race leader Dani Pedrosa crashed, he controlled a comfortable advantage over the field to take the flag by 3.708 seconds from Valentino Rossi.

The reigning World Champion, who struggled throughout the race with a stomach upset, has closed the gap to series leader Rossi to 20 points, having trailed by 50 just three races ago, and is only four points behind Pedrosa in second place.

Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team) - 1st:  "I saw Dani ride off into the distance and I thought 'fair play' - there was no way I could keep that pace in those conditions at that time.  We definitely needed a bit more time to get the tires up to temperature and Dani just kept edging away, but then after a few laps I was coming down the main straight and I could see his bike bouncing around in the gravel at turn one.

It's a shame for him but even though he crashed he was still very impressive today.  From then on it was a case of keeping my concentration but that wasn't easy because I've been a little sick all weekend and I wasn't feeling at all good during the race.

Also, we went with quite a hard rear tire compound and I had quite a few small moments that made me nervous but kept me on my guard.  I kept pushing where I could and managed to keep opening out the advantage with every lap, then kept it upright to the end.  It's nice to close the championship down a little bit more and once again I owe a huge 'thank you' to the team, who have adapted the bike to virtually any condition here. This win is dedicated to them."

Yamaha Team Report
Valentino Rossi took the runner-up spot in the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring today and moved back to the top of the championship, after Dani Pedrosa crashed out of the lead on lap five.  Rossi's Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was another victim of the first fully wet race of the season, sliding out of the race on the third lap.

This morning's practice was run on a damp track but the weather worsened through the middle part of the day and the MotoGP race began in heavy rain.  Rossi, starting from seventh on the grid, was caught up in the first lap confusion and lost some time but then made up two places on the second lap, before being elevated to fourth when Pedrosa went down.

In the next few laps the Italian passed first fellow Yamaha rider Colin Edwards and then Andrea Dovizioso, which left him in second behind Casey Stoner.  Rossi did his best to close the gap to the Australian but with the pair clocking similar lap times he was unable to make any headway into a deficit of more than three seconds, settling for second place and 20 points.

Chris Vermeulen loomed behind him at mid-race distance but Rossi's M1 and his Bridgestone tires were working well in the wet and he was able to step up the pace somewhat, eventually crossed the line 3.708 seconds behind Stoner and more than 14 ahead of third-placed Vermeulen.

Today's result sees Rossi back at the top of the standings, 16 points clear of Pedrosa and 20 ahead of Stoner, whilst Lorenzo holds on to fourth despite taking no points today.  The MotoGP paddock now packs up and makes the transatlantic trip to California for the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca in a week's time.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 2ndTime: +3.708:  "I'm really happy with this result, even if racing in the rain today wasn't quite as much fun as I've had in some of my past races here!  For the championship this is very, very important; I made a mistake last week in Assen and today Dani did the same.

It's unlucky but this is racing and now we are back in front and this is a very good feeling.  Dani is tough and we know he will be back fighting at the front, but sincerely at the moment we need to think about how to catch Casey because he has been very fast now for a few races.

Once again here we lost some time during the practice trying to find the right setting and we can't afford to keep doing this. T oday we started from the third row and this meant that I had to deal with some confusion at the start and lost some time on the front riders.

By the time I got behind Casey my M1 was working very well and I had very good grip with my Bridgestone rain tires; I felt very confident and I tried hard to push but there was no way to catch him at that stage, so our aim must be to start at the front from now on.  Thanks to all my team and engineers; now we have to try to extend this lead in Laguna."

Toseland 11th, Edwards Crashes at Soaked Sachsenring
Today's 30-lap German MotoGP race ended below pre-race expectations for Tech 3 Yamaha duo Colin Edwards and James Toseland at a rain-soaked Sachsenring.

Making his wet race debut on board the Yamaha YZR-M1, Toseland gained valuable experience in full rain conditions on his way to a battling 11th place. Edwards' bid though to extend the best run of form in his MotoGP career ended with a crash out of fifth place on lap 21.

Toseland made a stunning start from the fourth row to claim fifth by the first corner, but he was unable to match the fast pace of the leaders as he faced the tough task of mastering the conditions, while also adapting to his YZR-M1 machine in the wet.

Edwards' crash ended his valiant attempt to claim a sixth successive top five finish in front of a 98,000-strong crowd.  Having started from the front row for the fifth time in 2008, he seemed certain to be Michelin's best finisher when he slipped off at the seventh corner while holding off Andrea Dovizioso.  Fortunately, Edwards escaped injury and is looking forward to a return to form in his home race at Laguna Seca next weekend.

Qualifying
Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa seem unstoppable recently, and they will start from 1st and 2nd positions on the grid respectively for Sunday's Sachsenring MotoGP race.

Colin Edwards has also been doing very well this year, which may be his last in MotoGP.  He handed the Tech 3 Yamaha team its sixth front row start of 2008 after another impressive qualifying performance at the Sachsenring today.

Wary that rain might disrupt the session after a weather-hit final practice session this morning, Edwards used one of his Michelin qualifying tires early and he jumped to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1.21.794.

More than half the session still remained at that stage, but Edwards was always in contention for his fourth front row start of the season. And in the closing seconds, a best lap of 1.21.519 on his final Michelin qualifying tire saw him claim third on the grid, just 0.099s behind. MotoGP world championship leader Dani Pedrosa and dominant Casey Stoner.  Edwards is confident that his race pace will be good enough to challenge for a third podium of the season in tomorrow's 30- lap race.

A late set-up change with his YZR-M1 machine reaped immediate rewards for British team-mate James Toseland.  The 27- year-old was able to knock a full second off his previous best time with the alteration, which helped with rear traction.  Toseland moved up as high as ninth on the third row before he slipped down to 11th in the closing stages. He was only 0.5s away from the front row with another determined display.

Colin Edwards 3rd 1.21.519 - 26 laps:  We tried something different this morning and I don't know if I woke up on the wrong side of the bed or what we tried was bizarre, even though it wasn't far from what we had yesterday, but it just didn't work.

I threw a qualifier in early just to make sure I'd got a time in with the skies looking a bit threatening.  You'd hate to be on the pace and not try an early qualifier and be back in ninth or something on the grid.  Being on the front row is great for my team because it is so important here with it being so hard to pass on this track.

I've never gone well at this track, so if somebody had told me on Thursday I'd be on the front row and ready to fight for the podium, I'm not sure what I would have said.  But it's a testament to how good everything is working well together.  The bike, the tires and the team just make a great package.  I'd still like a bit more feeling on the front and it kind of feels a bit vague but I think a lot of that's down to the temperature.

We have to run a harder front for endurance and it works okay, but it would work great in hotter conditions because the surface was only about 26 degrees out there today.  But the Michelin qualifiers are awesome because you can just go and push on them.  It might rain tomorrow and we have been trying to sort out a wet setting with the geometry of this year's bike and we have struggled a bit.

We have a wet setting that I used to finish second at Donington last year and I used it at Donington in qualifying last month.  Just about every time it rains I pull this setting out and use it.  So tomorrow I'm not going to mess around and try and make something new work.  I'll just get 20 minutes of good time on that setting if its wet in the warm-up.  I expect to be up there challenging at the front tomorrow because the total package is working awesome."

Race Preview
The MotoGP race teams face the first half of a transatlantic double-header this weekend as the MotoGP World Championship heads to Germany for the tenth round of the season, followed immediately by a trip to the USA for round eleven.

The two races are separated by just seven days and a distance of some 9,400 kilometers, representing a grueling final push before the four-week summer break.

The Sachsenring circuit traditionally produces close racing and Valentino Rossi has unsurprisingly been involved over recent years, starring in some of the most exciting MotoGP race finishes of all time.

The most memorable was in 2006, when the Italian stormed from eleventh on the grid on his Yamaha to lead home the closest top-four ever in MotoGP, separated as they were by just 0.307 seconds.  Rossi, who is set to break Max Biaggi's record of 201 consecutive Grand Prix appearances this weekend, has had three other victories at Sachsenring in all classes and he is keen to add to that tally as the season crosses its midseason equator with Dani Pedrosa on the top of the standings - just four points clear of the Italian.

Rossi took time out of his training schedule last weekend to visit Misano for Yamaha Fest, where he was joined for the first time by his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.  After recovering his confidence with two sixth place finishes in the last two rounds, the 21-year-old Mallorcan is relaxed and ready to re-ignite his challenge for the top positions at a circuit where he has only once previously made the podium, in the 250cc race in 2006.

Located in the heartland of the former East Germany's once glorious motorcycle racing industry, the Sachsenring is built right next to the old road course, a characteristic the track shares with Brno in the nearby Czech Republic.  The second shortest track on the calendar features a series of tight and relatively slow corners juxtaposed with some dazzlingly fast ones - including a stomach-churning downhill right hander which was added in 2003.

Valentino Rossi:  "Last year in Sachsenring I made a mistake and crashed, and at the last race in Assen I also made a mistake, so I hope that I've now had my bad moment for this year!  Sachsenring has been a great track for me in the past and it's a great place to race at; it's very tight and twisty but it generally suits the Yamaha very well and in 2006 I had a fantastic race there, winning from 11th.

We are going there having lost our championship lead but we're only four points behind so the situation is certainly much better than it was at this point last season.  I was disappointed with myself in Assen because I missed a great chance but I have put that behind me and I am completely focused on the next race now.  We need to be at 100% from the first practice and hopefully we can have a good weekend with no more mistakes!"

Jorge Lorenzo - Back in Training
"I have recently started to train normally again after a gap of two months, which has been quite hard for me and I have been very tired lately!" said Jorge Lorenzo. 

"Since the accident in China I haven't been able to use the exercise bike or do proper cardiovascular work until last week, so I am just having to take my regime step-by-step to try to build my strength; I know that building my fitness back up is the best way to return to my former level.  Even though it's been a hard time for me through the last two months I think that the crashes have made me stronger mentally; when you win it's easy but when things are going badly, this is when you learn more about yourself and this is very important to make you a better competitor.

For the next race I have to keep trying to build my confidence with the bike. Sachsenring is a complicated track and my best result there is only third, but I don't think about statistics when I race.  I just want to arrive at Sachsenring feeling relaxed and do my best to enjoy it."

Sachsenring: Record Lap
D. Pedrosa (Honda) 2007, 1'23.082

Sachsenring: Best Lap
D. Pedrosa (Honda) 2006, 1'21.815

Grand Prix Results: Sachsenring 2007
1. D.Pedrosa (Honda) 41'53.196
2. L.Capirossi (Ducati) +13.166
3. N.Hayden (Honda) +16.708