2010 MotoGP Sachsenring Saturday Insider

Valentino Rossi has cast serious doubt on his podium hopes in tomorrow’s German MotoGP race, despite producing a heroic performance in qualifying this afternoon. Back in action just six weeks after suffering a compound fracture of his right tibia in Mugello, the 31-year-old defied the pain to qualify fifth on the grid for the Sachsenring clash. Rossi ended with a best time of 1.22.395 to finish just over 0.5s away from Fiat Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo in pole position, but just 0.132s behind fellow Italian Andrea Dovizoso in fourth. Rossi conceded the major doubt ahead of tomorrow’s race was his ability to run a fast and consistent pace for 30 punishing laps.

“I have some problems on the right with the braking on my shoulder,” said Rossi. “But the bigger problem is when I twist my ankle and knee when I change direction from right to left and twist my body. I have some pain. The second problem is in the corner after the braking when I have to move my foot back on the footpeg, I have some pain in the muscle on the inside of the knee. After this morning I had some pain in the fracture so for this afternoon I had to suffer a bit. I will be ready for the race and try to do 30 laps in a row without losing too much time. I think with a night to rest I don't think it will be a big problem. I think if everything is okay in the race I can run a pace of 22.1, but to go like Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner will be a bit too difficult for me . It will be very difficult for me to fight for the podium, but perhaps just behind the podium is possible."

Casey Stoner admitted he was frustrated and disappointed having just been thwarted in his bid to secure a first MotoGP pole position since the opening race in Qatar today. The 24-year-old looked on course to deny Jorge Lorenzo a fourth straight pole position with a brilliant late attack. The 2007 world champion was faster than Lorenzo through the second and third splits but lost crucial time when he quickly caught Colin Edwards on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1. Stoner was unable to negotiate his way by the veteran American and at the end he was only 0.024s away from Lorenzo.

“I’m definitely disappointed because this weekend has been going very well for us,” said Stoner. “In general this weekend I’ve been competitive and running good times even though I’d like to do them a bit easier. Personally I think we should have been on pole but I didn’t time my lap well enough. I got caught up behind Colin Edwards in the penultimate corner and lost some vital time. I was a little bit disappointed not to get pole by such a small margin but maybe I should have attempted to pass him earlier and things might have been different. I tried on the last lap but I lost the front a bit and it was game over for me, but a front row start is important.”

Stoner was using a new fairing on his Ducati GP10 machine today and he said he’d race the new aerodynamics package in tomorrow’s 30-lap clash. The fairing features small wings on each side and is designed to help prevent wheelies while also aiding turning stability in fast corners.

“We’ll stay with this new fairing. We felt some difference at a higher speed but to be honest this is a slower track and maybe the difference won’t feel as drastic as a faster one. We need more time to understand it. We feel in the faster corners we had some positive feeling but in the slower corners we didn’t find any difference.”

Jorge Lorenzo apologized to Ben Spies and Randy de Puniet after a spectacular engine blow-up on his factory Yamaha resulted in heavy crashes for the American and Frenchman. Lorenzo was trying to overhaul compatriot Dani Pedrosa in this afternoon’s qualifying session with 25 minutes remaining when his YZR-M1 blew-up on the start/finish straight. Flames were seen pouring out of the Spaniard’s fairing and it was only when he felt oil on his right boot approaching the first corner that he veered off track.

The 23-year-old Spaniard, who is chasing a sixth win in eight races tomorrow, said: “For sure Randy is not so happy with his crash and also Ben. I am so sorry about my engine problem. This is what can happen with four-strokes. When you break an engine it can lose a lot of oil. For the rider who is on the bike it is quite safe, but not like a two-stroke engine that when you lose oil you can crash. But this is the problem with the oil. Maybe we can find some solution with something that helps keep the oil off the track. In the first moment I didn’t know what happened. I didn’t see the flames or feel the oil. But when I started to arrive close to the first corner I started to feel the oil on my boots. It was hot but it was too late to get off the line. It was a different session because normally you don’t break an engine. But I was on the straight at full throttle and suddenly the engine stopped. There were a lot of flames and a lot of oil was on my foot. I had to stop the bike and move off the track.”

The session was stopped for almost 30 minutes as track officials tried to clear the oil trail that went on for several meters in the braking zone for the first corner. But once restarted, Lorenzo produced a brilliant performance on his spare factory YZR-M1 machine to claim his fourth successive pole position. He clocked a best time of 1.21.817 to finish just 0.024s clear of Aussie Casey Stoner on the factory Ducati GP10.

“It was the first time I’d ridden the second bike but I was really confident to be faster than before I broke the engine,” Lorenzo said. “It was a good surprise for me because I thought with the oil in the first corner it would be impossible to improve the lap time but at the end I was able to do it. I’ve never ridden so comfortable at this track and today was the first time in my career that I rode so well at this circuit.”

Dani Pedrosa admitted he was lucky not to have been caught up in the oil crash carnage caused by Jorge Lorenzo’s factory Yamaha YZR-M1 in Germany today. Pedrosa, who finished third in Saturday’s close qualifying session behind Lorenzo and Ducati rival Casey Stoner, was not far behind Ben Spies and Randy de Puniet as the incident unfolded. Spies and De Puniet suffered heavy crashes when they were powerless to avoid hitting a large oil trail approaching the first corner after Lorenzo’s YZR-M1 suffered a terminal failure.

“I was very lucky because when I came to the first turn I didn’t see the yellow flags or anything else before I closed my throttle. I saw smoke and when I saw that immediately I closed the throttle and moved to the right because I thought there was oil on the track. And then I saw two bikes on the ground and I couldn’t understand because the smoke was in another place. I was lucky not to be the first one and crash like Randy and Ben after Lorenzo’s problem.”

Ben Spies was a relieved man in the Sachsenring paddock tonight after he escaped serious injury in a horrific crash during today’s qualifying session. The Texan was an innocent victim when he lost control of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 on oil dropped by Jorge Lorenzo’s bike on the start/finish straight with 25 minutes of the session remaining. Spies crashed when he braked at the first corner having just elevated himself into the top-10. He was lucky not to be struck by Randy de Puniet’s LCR Honda RC212V machine after the Frenchman also hit the oil.

“I honestly don’t remember much about what happened. I was almost off the brakes and that’s what surprised me. I’d just finished my stint and was pulling in at the end of the lap to start going for a qualifying time. All of a sudden I was on the ground and I hadn’t really tipped in. I saw De Puniet’s bike fly right past me and I knew it didn’t feel like he hit me. I walked over to his bike and looked at the front tire and saw it had oil all over it. I knew it wasn’t off my bike because I didn’t crash on the rear. I lost the front. I knew I’d hit something and it was unfortunate for both of us and it sucks. I’m glad I didn’t get drilled by his bike because it came past me at Mach 4. Other than that it wasn’t a fun session. Everything that could go wrong pretty much went wrong.”

Spies had to settle for a lowly 13th-place with a best time of 1.23.028 after he was unable to complete the session on his preferred YZR-M1 machine, which was badly damaged in the spill.

“I’d only been riding one bike this weekend and that got tore up in the crash. The lap times on my number one bike I definitely had something in the bag for qualifying to go faster than I did. But the best I could do on the spare bike was match the times I managed on the number one bike. It wasn’t good and now we’re starting a couple of people from dead last, but it is pretty frustrating because everything was going really good up to that point. The one decent lap that I was on at the end that would have put me a row ahead, (Alex) de Angelis crashed in front of me at the top of the hill and that just upset my lap. I really believe we have good pace but now we’re starting way back and we’ve got to try and get a good start and come through the field. Where we qualified today doesn’t reflect on where we should be. The session was a disaster.”

Spies at least escaped injury less than a week before his vital home race at Laguna Seca next weekend.

Meanwhile Randy de Puniet faces the prospect of a physically grueling German MotoGP race tomorrow after he was involved in a high-speed crash at the tight and twisty Sachsenring track today. The Frenchman has been declared fit to compete in the 30-lap encounter after he crashed at over 140 mph during qualifying. The LCR Honda man, who is the leading non-factory rider in 2010, lost control of his RC212V machine on the oil dropped by Jorge Lorenzo’s factory Yamaha. Seconds after Ben Spies crashed out De Puniet followed the American into the gravel trap at high-speed. He rolled several times and also clipped Spies’ Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine before coming to a rest. Worried that he might have broken the left ankle he fractured last summer, he underwent X-rays in the circuit medical center which showed no serious damage. The 29-year-old, who was testing new electronics supplied by Honda after his brilliant start to 2010, was running in fifth-place when he crashed. Unable to return to the track, he lost two places with his best time of 1.22.610 securing him seventh.

“What can I say? I am lucky because all my bones are in place,” said De Puniet. “We have been working well with the new software and I was up there for the whole session. I was on my last lap on the hard tire and was ready to come in to swap on soft ones but suddenly Jorge’s engine blew up on the straight and after a few seconds the surface was full of oil. It happened too quick and nobody had the time to react or to display the board. Spies crashed in front of me and I did the same onto his bike hurting myself heavily. After last year’s left ankle fracture I was seriously worried about my condition, but it’s just a scratch of the right tibia. But it aches very much! Of course I won’t be at 100 percent for tomorrow but my race pace is quite good and will do my best to take as many points as possible.”