Amidst blistering heat at Sachsenring, Dani Pedrosa ended both his and Honda’s win drought with victory in a hard-fought Alice Grand Prix of Germany. The Spaniard was on a run of 18 races without stepping onto the top box of the podium, with his factory on their longest winless streak since 1991. However, Pedrosa certainly showed no signs of unfamiliarity at the head of the pack, riding an assured race and benefiting from the great performance of his Michelin tyres. He eventually crossed the line over 13 seconds ahead of another resurgent star, Loris Capirossi.
Capirossi took his second podium of the season by riding somewhat against the tide, paying no heed to the expectations that his Bridgestone rubber would fade towards the end of the race. The Italian veteran gave himself something to smile about after a series of difficult Grands Prix, and also a timely reminder of his talent to those teams planning to dip into the market for 2008. He slipped past his team-mate Casey Stoner on lap 19 as part of an overtaking manoeuvre gone wrong by Marco Melandri, and held out at the highly physical German track for another visit to the rostrum.
In an ideal warm-up for next week’s home race, Nicky Hayden stepped onto the podium for the second consecutive race. In Assen he set off from thirteenth, and he had just as difficult a task this weekend as he stormed through the field from fourteenth. Chasing a hat trick of victories at Laguna Seca, Hayden appears to have hit form at just the right time to turn around his season and hold his head high stateside.
Colin Edwards also pushed himself into the top four from nowhere, riding commendably onboard the Yamaha M1 to finish just two seconds behind Hayden. His performance also gave some degree of help to team-mate and title challenger Valentino Rossi, as the ‘Texas Tornado’ managed to relegate World Championship leader Casey Stoner to fifth and limit the damage to the Italian’s hopes.
Stoner experienced a difficult race from pole, but now leads the way in the classification by 32 points from Rossi. The Australian had never raced in a MotoGP race in Germany, but despite not being able to challenge for victory number six he still took crucial points in the title hunt, albeit in his joint-worst position of the season.
An early crash from Rossi was somewhat more helpful to Stoner’s cause, leaving the five-time MotoGP World Champion with a zero on the board after he lowsided when trying to pass Randy de Puniet. He now heads to Laguna Seca knowing that he will spend the summer break on the back foot in the battle between himself and his Ducati-riding rival.
Marco Melandri took his fourth top six finish of the year onboard the Gresini Honda RC212V, ahead of John Hopkins and the constantly improving Anthony West. The latter has bettered his placing at both races since his debut eleventh position at Donington Park for Kawasaki, and continues to reward ‘Team Green’ for the gamble taken on bringing him in as a replacement rider.
West’s team-mate Randy de Puniet was forced into retirement on the last lap with a mechanical problem, pushing Pramac d’Antin Ducati’s Alex Hofmann up to ninth position at his home race. The Frenchman’s withdrawal also gave Michel Fabrizio a top ten finish in his wild card appearance for Gresini Honda.
In addition to Rossi and De Puniet, there were also retirements for Alex Barros, Sylvain Guintoli and Shinya Nakano.
A great day for KTM concluded with a memorable one-two in the 250cc class, with victory at Sachsenring going to their Japanese talent Hiroshi Aoyama ahead of Mika Kallio.
The 125cc category begins its summer break with Gabor Talmacsi two points clear in the overall standings, courtesy of a runaway victory from pole at Sachsenring.
A storming first lap from the Hungarian saw him break the lap record by a second, and he maintained the gap between himself and his pursuers to finish 3.5 seconds ahead of second placed Tomoyoshi Koyama.
Results:
1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda 41'53.196,
2. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati 42'06.362,
3. Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda 42'09.967,
4. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 42'11.495,
5. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati 42'24.622,
6. Marco Melandri (ITA) HONDA 42'25.113,
7. John HOPKINS (USA) Suzuki 42'26.591,
8. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki 42'34.390,
9. Alex Hofmann (GER) Ducati 42'36.410,
10. Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Honda 42'37.655.
Championship positions: 1. Stoner 196,
2. Rossi Valentino 164,
3. Pedrosa 144,
4. Hopkins 103,
5. Melandri Marco 97,
6. Vermeulen Chris 93,
7. Edwards 88,
8. Capirossi 77,
9. Hayden 73,
10. Barros Alex 69.
Bradley Battles Through Pain Barrier To Championship PointsBradley Smith arrived at the Sachsenring on crutches and left on them for a well earned summer break. In between they were thrown aside as the 16 year-old Oxfordshire rider fought through the pain barrier to finish a superb eighth in the energy-sapping 27-lap 125cc race around the demanding circuit.
The Repsol Honda rider fought off the considerable challenge and Pablo Nieto and Michael Ranseder in the closing stages to claim eight championship points which lifted him to seventh place in the World Championship after ten rounds.
“That was as hard as it gets and I’m both disappointed to finish eighth after starting from the front row but pleased and relieved to be back in a grand prix and scoring points,” explained the exhausted teenager after the race. “My foot and leg were painful but I got through it and I’m seventh in the Championship going into the summer break. Our next race is not for five weeks and so I should be fully fit again when we arrive at Brno in the Czech Republic.”
Kent-based Danny Webb stuck to his task to finish 27th riding the De Graaf Grand Prix Honda.
It was a disappointing 250cc race for both Eugene Laverty and Dan Linfoot. Both crashed out without injury.
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