Motourage

Randy De Puniet finished the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring, site of the ninth stop in the MotoGP world championship, in 13th place. After a positive weekend for the Frenchman, who was one of the fastest and most solid Ducati riders, the race didn’t go as the Pramac Racing Team had hoped. A mistake on the first lap cost De Puniet precious seconds, and several positions as a result. His teammate, Sylvain Guintoli, riding the Ducati Desmosedici in place of Loris Capirossi, finished at the rear, in 17th place.

Marco Rigamonti, Randy De Puniet’s rack engineer
“Randy had a race pace that was pretty similar to that of the second group, composed of Bautista, Hayden and Rossi. Unfortunately, the first lap affected the rest of his grand prix; he didn’t want to risk crashing and was a little cautious, mostly when cornering. Lap by lap, he wasn’t able to maintain the rhythm of the others, especially because of some problems with the front that showed up midway through the race. As he wasn’t able to push very hard, he decided to finish the race as well as he could. We could have done better if we hadn’t lost the group ahead in the opening laps.”

Randy De Puniet, 13th in race, 17th in MotoGP standings
“I’m not satisfied about my thirteenth place. I was able to start from the third row, having lost all those seconds in the first lap has affected the whole race. I have lost the group in front of me, the one composed by Hayden, Rossi, Edwards and Barbera, and I was no longer able to shorten the distance. Halfway through the race, then, I had problems with the front; I could not close the gap, and I lost more positions. I tried to finish the race, I could not do better. We will try to improve in next weekend.”

Sylvai Guintoli, 17th in race
“It was a great experience for me. In these two days my goal was to understand the bike. I’ve done it; today, lap after lap, I improved my bests lap times, and the best one has arrived at the end of the race. I would like to thank Pramac Racing Team for giving me this opportunity and, of course, my Superbike team which allowed me to be here. MotoGP is always a good test.”

The starting grid for the MotoGP German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring was determined in this afternoon’s qualifying session. Pramac Ducati’s Randy De Puniet registered the ninth-best time (1:22.503), just behind Nicky Hayden, the only Ducati rider to finish in the top 10. DePuniet will start from the fifth row tomorrow, while Sylvain Guintoli, who, prior to this morning, had only ridden Loris Capirossi’s Desmosedici here in yesterday’s afternoon session, ended qualifying in 18th place with a time of 1:24.707.

Marco Rigamonti, Randy De Puniet Track Engineer
“Today went rather well. This morning Randy was complaining about the rear, so this afternoon we tried two different solutions. One was pretty effective, and we’ll use it again tomorrow. If the temperature is similar to today’s, I think we’ll start with the hard tires, which give our rider more consistency and stability. In the Warm-Up, we’ll do a little experiment with the front and see what happens, but we’re more likely to not change much on the bike’s setup, considering the good results we’ve had these two days.”

Randy De Puniet, Pramac Racing, 9th, 1:22.503
“I’m pretty pleased with the work carried out over these two days, and as I said yesterday, it’s been a long time since I last left the garage happy. At the moment, everything is going according to our plans. I’m able to go fast with both the hard and soft tires. We’ll try some things tomorrow morning, specifically with the front. I’m pleased with my ninth place, which a good start going into the race.”

Sylvain Guintoli, Pramac Racing, 17th 1:24.707
“We’re a little far from the other riders, but anyway my feeling with the bike has improved compared to this morning. My tires were ruined when I came back to the garage, and that could present a problem for the race. I did my best, and tomorrow I’ll have to try to have a good race.”

Lorenzo Keeps Podium Record Intact While Rossi Seals Remarkable Fourth Place

Valentino Rossi came back from injury to capture fourth place after a battle with Casey Stoner reminiscent of 2008

The German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring today provided a thrilling afternoon’s racing, with Jorge Lorenzo finishing second and his resurgent Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi rounding off a remarkable return from injury to finish fourth by a mere whisker. A red flag after nine laps meant the race was restarted, with Dani Pedrosa eventually taking the win after a 21-lap ‘second’ race.

Starting from pole for the fourth race in a row, Lorenzo lost ground to Pedrosa at the start but retook the lead on the first lap and led the way by a couple of tenths for the first nine laps. Rossi meanwhile, back racing just six weeks after breaking his leg, had dropped two places on his grid position to seventh. On the second lap he passed Hector Barbera and then loomed up behind Marco Simoncelli, passing his fellow Italian to take fifth on lap four. The World Champion had more than a second’s gap to Andrea Dovizioso but he quickly started to close down on him and was in range on the ninth lap, passing him on the tenth. By then however an incident involving three riders had caused the race to be red-flagged and, with positions then taken from the end of the ninth lap, that left the top five in almost their original grid order of Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Stoner, Dovizioso and Rossi.

Thirteen riders restarted the race and it was the same story all over again, with Pedrosa passing Lorenzo into turn one but the championship-leader getting back through before the end of the first lap. The next few laps saw the two Spanish riders in some superb wheel-to-wheel action as Lorenzo tried and failed to shake Pedrosa off, the pair maintaining a nail-biting distance of about a tenth for several laps. After three wins in a row however Lorenzo finally succumbed today and on lap nine he was unable to hold his compatriot off any longer, sensibly deciding to bring his M1 home in second place for 20 points. The 23-year-old has now finished in first or second place at every one of the eight rounds this season.

The restart saw Rossi again lose some ground but he passed Hayden second time around to retake fifth and set off in pursuit of the leaders. On the sixth lap he got by Dovizioso but with a near two-second gap to Stoner it looked unlikely that the Italian would make much headway on the Australian. Rossi is always one to amaze however and he was soon lapping at the same pace as the leaders to bring himself within striking distance of Stoner with a third of the race remaining. The final six laps saw some superb action between the two rivals, with Rossi looking as if he had never been away and several brilliant overtaking maneuvers from both riders. On the penultimate lap Rossi took the lead in what looked like a decisive move but on the final corner Stoner somehow found a way back through and the nine-time Champion was forced to settle for fourth, albeit probably the most impressive fourth position of his career.

Lorenzo’s championship lead now stands at 47 points from Pedrosa, whilst Rossi moves up one place to sixth. The paddock now heads directly to Laguna Seca in California for the US Grand Prix in one weeks time.

Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 2ndTime: +3.355
“It’s always difficult when a race is split like this and I think I didn’t ride quite as well in the second race as I felt I had been doing in the first. Dani was very, very strong and I was on the limit trying to stay ahead. When he passed me I tried briefly to stay with him but he was much faster than me today and I was going to have to take a lot of risks to stay with him; the safest thing for me to do was finish second and take 20 points for the championship. I am happy because I never really liked this track and now I’ve been second here two years in a row. Now we go to Laguna and I am very excited about racing there again.”

Valentino Rossi – Position: 4thTime: +5.623
“I didn’t expect this! I thought it was maybe possible to make fourth or fifth place but I thought it would be very difficult. In the end I was fourth but I had a great battle with Casey and I was so close to the podium, so this is a fantastic result after missing four races. I need some more kilometers to really recover the feeling and feel completely okay with the bike again, but I think I did a great job and this was a very good comeback, better than we could wish for. I felt a bit of pain in my shoulder but more in the leg when changing direction, but at the end the battle with Casey was such fun that I didn’t think about it. Unfortunately though he just got the better of me on the last corner! Thanks to all my team for helping me come back and be competitive like this, we will try to do even better in Laguna.”

Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager
“I said before this weekend that we can’t win them all and today Jorge rode another very sensible race to finish second and bring home 20 valuable points for the championship. It’s a pity about the restart because the final third of the race is generally Jorge’s strongest and with the shortened race he didn’t have that bonus, but he rode a great race nonetheless and tried his best to stay with Pedrosa, who was a bit faster than us today. This hasn’t been one of his best tracks in the past and he had some problems the first day so this is a good result for us all.”

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“In the end this race was something completely unexpected; one week ago we didn’t know if we’d be able to ride here at all and then day by day our targets changed. We would have been happy whatever with a top five today but finally we were really competitive and so close to the podium. It’s unbelievable and even more so because we were lapping at the same pace as the leaders. We’ve never been so excited by a battle for third position! It was very positive; Valentino worked so hard to be here and he made it in style, so now we will continue our plan in Laguna next weekend.”

Spies Storms to Battling Eighth in Sachsenring

Ben Spies continued his fantastic charge towards the top five in the MotoGP world championship standings this afternoon after a richly deserved eighth place in a restarted German MotoGP race.

Facing a difficult challenge after starting in a lowly 13th position following an incident-packed qualifying session, Spies was in hot pursuit of a top eight finish when the scheduled 30-lap race was red flagged on lap ten after a three-rider incident. The race was restarted over 21-laps and Spies lost contact with the group in front of him when Mika Kallio crashed at the first corner.

The 26-year-old sat in tenth position for the opening seven laps before he managed to expertly guide his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine by Marco Melandri on lap nine having already disposed of Hector Barbera.

At that stage Spies was over five seconds behind compatriot Nicky Hayden, but the reigning World Superbike champion was able to embark on a stunning charge in front of 98,477 fans.

His lap times were only bettered by the leading quartet at one stage and Spies was able to lap over a second faster than the group contending fifth spot in front of him. By the end he’d closed to within two seconds of Hayden and Spies was delighted with his pace, confident had he not started so far down the field that he would been able to seriously threaten for a place in the top five.

A difficult weekend for Colin Edwards ended in disappointing fashion. Despite numerous changes to the set-up of his Monster Yamaha YZR-M1 machine throughout the weekend, Edwards was unable to discover a setting that allowed him to push at the fast pace he is capable of. And his hopes of maintaining his proud record of scoring points in every race were ended when he crashed out of 16th position shortly before the race was red flagged.

Spies and Edwards now turn their attention to the all-important American MotoGP race at Laguna Seca. It is the eagerly anticipated home race for the Texan duo and both are determined to deliver strong results for an expectant and partisan crowd.

Ben Spies – Position: 8thTime: +20.957
“Eighth place does not reflect what happened on track today and it was quite clear that I could have been much higher. I had the misfortune in qualifying yesterday that was nobody’s fault, but starting that far back hurt me today. It wasn’t easy to pass Melandri because his bike accelerates really well but once I got by and could run my own race, I was really happy with how I performed. Dovizioso, Simoncelli and Nicky were five seconds clear at that point but I got to just over a second away from them. I was pretty much the fifth fastest guy on the track and I definitely had a fifth place result in me today, but I just had bad luck with the qualifying crash. But I leave with a top eight result and I’m not that far away from fourth in the championship now. Now I’m really looking forward to going home and racing at Laguna Seca. I love the circuit and I will have a lot of support and I genuinely believe I can run in the top five.”

Colin Edwards – Position: DNF
“I got pushed around a bit at the start and lost a bit of time and I was just pushing because what I would lose on acceleration I would try and catch it all up on the brakes. It was my mistake. I ran into the last corner wide and was probably a meter off line and when I tried to pull it back I lost the front. This wasn’t the result I wanted going into my home race next week at Laguna Seca but I’m more motivated than ever to get back on track and recover from a pretty difficult period in the season for me. I love Laguna and the atmosphere created by the fans and rest assured I’ll be aiming to get myself much closer to the front where I know I belong in front of my home crowd.”

Herve Poncharal – Team Manager
“Ben was once again very impressive this weekend and he showed that he is an expert at learning new tracks. Unfortunately his race was dictated by his qualifying position and being so far down through no fault of his own was difficult. It was a pity because we saw that he had the pace to run in t he group battling for fifth. He was catching them a lot and as always he was very fast at the end of the race. He finished the weekend on a high note and he is really fired up for Laguna Seca next week now. It was a shame that Colin crashed in the first part of the race and unfortunately he has not been able to reach the level of performance we know he can this weekend. He’s never given up and worked really hard with his crew but thankfully he wasn’t hurt in the crash and I know he is incredibly motivated to perform better at Laguna Seca. The whole Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team is looking forward to Laguna Seca because the support for Ben and Colin will be incredible.”

Circuit Length: 3671
Temp: 21
Weather: Dry

Lap Record: 1’23.082 (Daniel Pedrosa, 01/01/2007)
Fastest Lap Ever: 1’21.067 (Casey Stoner, 13/07/2008)
Last Years Winner: Valentino Rossi

Johann Zarco

Today is the last Friday of free practice before the summer break for the 125cc and Moto2, and as has been the case several times so far in the season, Thursday’s sessions brought rain, while today brings sunshine and hot temperatures.

125cc class rider Johann Zarco, riding today on his 20th birthday, had some trouble with his bike at the beginning of the session and lost twenty minutes trying to find a better setup. The team was quick to set up the motorcycle, and Zarco immediately started to improve.  However, due to his problems with the bike, he closed this session in only 17th position. His team is confident for tomorrow though, now that the young rider can focus his attention in riding and not on the setting of the bike.

Valentin Debise

Today’s practice sessions were also unlucky for Moto2’s Valentin Debise who went down while in 25th position. He came away uninjured, but damage to the bike made it impossible for him to return to the track for the final session.  He finished in 38th position without any real chance to improve his lap times.

JOHANN ZARCO – 17th position (1’30.102 – 19 laps):
“Today we were a bit unluckily. At the beginning of the session, we had a problem with the bike that didn’t switch on and we lost 20 minutes. Then I was quiet when I started and I only took my landmarks. We didn’t change my bike setting because our objective was to take the faster riders like models and try to follow them. Unluckily, I was unable to follow them, because every time someone stopped or eased himself, and for this reason I lost time and I didn’t improve my lap time.  Anyway, I well understood my errors and I gave important information at my chief mechanic. For sure tomorrow will be better.”

VALENTIN DEBISE – 38th position (1’28.859 – 9 laps):
“I started well, I was riding alone, I had a perfect rhythm and I was 25th. Then we changed the tires with new ones and probably I pushed too much. I made an error at the corner entrance, I lost the front and regretfully I fell down.”

Rizla Suzuki racers Álvaro Bautista and Loris Capirossi head to the next round of the MotoGP World Championship at Sachsenring in Germany buoyed by the performance of the Suzuki GSV-R last time out at Barcelona.

Alvaro Bautista's fifth place at Barcelona gave Suzuki its best finish so far this season

Bautista has a good record at the German circuit over the past couple of seasons in the 250cc class. In 2008 and 2009 he qualified on the second row and raced to the third step of the podium in both races. He is hoping to carry some of the home form he showed at the last race in Spain – where he finished an excellent fifth – to Sachsenring and continue to improve on a MotoGP machine as his strength and confidence grows following his early season injury.

Capirossi will be looking to build on what he described as “the first real result” of 2010 last time out in Spain. He finished seventh in Barcelona and is certain that the huge steps the team took there will benefit them at the 3,671m East German circuit.

Sachsenring is traditionally one of the biggest events of the season with more than 200,000 fans turning up over the weekend. It is also the shortest race of the year with only slightly more than 110kms covered during the 30 laps. The first part of the track is as tight and twisty as any MotoGP circuit, followed by a sequence of six successive left-handers that really give the tires a hard workout before a blind right-hander leads to an epic downhill straight. It’s a track that’s all about grip rather than out-and-out speed and always a circuit that brings plenty of excitement.

Rizla Suzuki begins its preparations on Friday with an hour of free practice followed by a further hour on Saturday morning with qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 30-lap race is round eight of the season, and the event gets going at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT, 8AM EDT).

Álvaro Bautista:
“The last race was the first time I have felt like I could ride the bike how I wanted to. I feel stronger now and I’m sure I will be 100% when we get to Germany. It is a quite a difficult track, but I have had a couple of good results there on a 250 so I hope that will help me on the MotoGP bike. We know we still have a lot of work to do, but as usual we will be working as hard as possible to get the bike right and trying for a good result.”

Loris Capirossi:
“We must continue to work how we did at Barcelona and find the best solution for the bike. We know that the bike can perform well and we need to keep the positions we got at Barcelona, this is where we should be and at some races we can be even higher. The team is still so focused and we know what we have to do. I think we can go well in Germany and the GSV-R will work there and we’ll get a good result.”

Highside crashes are a common occurance in motorcycle racing, as are bikes torpedoing other bikes. What is not common is a high-siding rider becoming a human missile like what happened in this crash involving Nicky Hayden and Niccolo Canepa at last weekend’s MotoGP German Grand Prix qualifying session.

Special thanks to Noel for locating this video for Motourage.

After an extremely wet qualifying session at Sachsenring, Valentino Rossi again proved why he’s the reigning MotoGP champion by holding off a hard-charging Jorge Lorenzo to win the 2009 German Grand Prix.

1 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 41’21.769
2 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 41’21.868
3 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 41’24.668
4 Casey STONER Ducati Marlboro Team  41’31.995
5 Alex DE ANGELIS  San Carlo Honda Gresini 41’43.291
6 Toni ELIAS San Carlo Honda Gresini 41’52.621
7 Marco MELANDRI Hayate Racing Team 41’53.070
8 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Marlboro Team 41’53.495
9 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 41’54.634
10 James TOSELAND Monster Yamaha Tech 3 42’05.695
11 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 42’19.144
12 Niccolo CANEPA Pramac Racing 42’22.308
13 Chris VERMEULEN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 42’25.414
14 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing 42’25.924
15 Gabor TALMACSI Scot Racing Team MotoGP 41’22.338

Not classified
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team

Not finished 1st lap
14 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP

Motourage favorites Julian Simon & Alvaro Bautista recorded 1st and 3rd place finishes, respectively, in the 125 and 250cc races at the 2009 German Grand Prix.

125 Results

1 Julian SIMON Bancaja Aspar Team 125cc 39’57.337
2 Sergio GADEA Bancaja Aspar Team 125cc 40’06.752
3 Joan OLIVE Derbi Racing Team 40’14.896
4 Nicolas TEROL Jack & Jones Team 40’14.924
5 Pol ESPARGARO Derbi Racing Team 40’17.077
6 Sandro CORTESE Ajo Interwetten 40’18.115
7 Andrea IANNONE Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. 40’18.245
8 Danny WEBB Degraaf Grand Prix 40’35.558
9 Dominique AEGERTER Ajo Interwetten 40’35.771
10 Tomoyoshi KOYAMA Loncin Racing  40’37.422

250 Results
1 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 27’11.034
2 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 27’11.513
3 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 27’11.562
4 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 27’11.900
5 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 27’12.294
6 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 27’17.006
7 Aleix ESPARGARO Balatonring Team 27’19.755
8 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 27’19.796
9 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 27’30.210
10 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 27’38.984