2010 MotoGP Sachsenring Sunday Insider

Valentino Rossi came within 0.366s of a fairytale return to MotoGP in Germany as he lost out at the end of a monumental scrap with Ducati rival Casey Stoner. Rossi produced an all action display just six weeks after breaking his right leg in Mugello and he was seconds away from a stunning rostrum finish. In the build up to a thrilling climax to the 21-lap race, Stoner and Rossi had produced an exhibition in braking maneuvers as they constantly switched places from Lap 15 onwards. The 31-year-old looked like marking his injury return in style as he led Stoner for the majority of the final lap. But as he tried to defend at the final corner, Stoner craftily steered his Ducati GP10 on the inside of Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha to win the short drag to the finish line. Stoner’s resilience consigned Rossi to fourth but the nine-time world champion could hardly be disappointed as he marked his comeback with a ride full of grit, determination and skill. Rossi, who was testing a Yamaha R1 World Superbike machine in Misano just 32 days after breaking his right tibia, was elated with fourth.

“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!”

Rossi said he expected to have gained much more strength in his damaged right leg as he prepared to leave Europe and fly to California for this weekend’s American Grand Prix at Laguna Seca.

“My leg is not swollen and also my ankle and knee are moving well and it seems like every day I ride I feel less pain. So I hope next week to be even better."

What delighted Rossi as well as his fourth position was the way in which his troublesome right shoulder had stood to its first severe test since early June. Rossi damaged ligaments in his right shoulder in a motocross training accident in April and he feared it would cause him problems more than his leg.

“What I am more happy about is the shoulder. I had a lot of pain in Jerez and Le Mans and also at Mugello, but when I stayed 15 days in bed my shoulder became more tight and I lost a lot of movement. I was very frustrated and very worried to do another operation but I worked a lot in the swimming pool and in the race I had no pain."

So does he head across to the US confident of adding to his solitary Laguna Seca success in 2008?

“The target is to try to make a better result than Sachsenring, so I will be ready to try and win,” grinned Rossi.

Ben Spies is adamant he could have challenged for a top five-result in yesterday’s German MotoGP race after he settled for a hard fought eighth in front of over 98,000 fans at the Sachsenring circuit.The Texan blamed his big crash in Saturday’s qualifying session for his first finish outside of the top-five since last month’s Italian Grand Prix at Mugello. Spies was given a mountain to climb when he qualified his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine in 13th after he’d crashed heavily on oil dropped by Jorge Lorenzo. In the restarted race reduced to 21-laps, Spies came from outside the top-10 with passes on Hector Barbera and Marco Melandri. But he was a fraction over five seconds away from a group fighting for fifth that included fellow American Nicky Hayden, Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso. He superbly cut the gap down to just 1.3s but was unable to get close enough to launch an attack.

“Eighth-place does not reflect what happened on track. It doesn’t make it feel better but I’m trying to think in a positive way and every session that was clear and everything was going normal, I was there in the top-six or seven. I was happy with how I learned the track but I had misfortune in qualifying and that was nobody’s fault. But I got screwed on that and that’s how racing is. I had a bad start and just got shuffled behind some people and it was hard to pass. Obviously we’re lacking that punch off the corner and that made it really tough. In the restart I was in an okay place and in Turn 1 I was on a good line for the next few corners, but (Mika) Kallio crashed in front of me. That opened up quite a big gap and I caught Melandri and I just couldn’t get by him. They were parking in the corners and then jumping out and I was struggling to get around them. Once I did I was happy. Dovizioso, Simoncelli and Nicky were five seconds clear at that point but I got to just over a second away from them. Once I could ride my race I was pretty much the fifth-fastest guy on the track. I definitely had a fifth- place result in me but I just had bad luck. Qualifying is what hurt our weekend and that was out of my control. I can’t complain and hopefully we’ll be getting some better results. For the package I’m on, I’m happy and I can’t ask for more.”

Jorge Lorenzo decided to play it safe and settle for an easy second-place at the Sachsenring as he suffered a rare defeat in 2010. The 23-year-old led the shortened 21-lap race until Lap 10 when Repsol Honda rival and closest title challenger Dani Pedrosa moved to the front. Lorenzo was unable to muster a serious response and Pedrosa was able to cruise to a reasonably comfortable second win of the season. Fiat Yamaha rider Lorenzo though maintained his impressive form and has yet to finish lower than second this season as he easily prevented himself from coming under threat from Casey Stoner and returning teammate Valentino Rossi. Lorenzo only lost five points in the title race and still holds a commanding 47-point advantage over compatriot Pedrosa as the paddock makes the dash across the Atlantic for this weekend’s American MotoGP at Laguna Seca.

Despite not being able to put more pressure on Pedrosa, Lorenzo was satisfied with his 20-point haul and said: “I am so happy with this second position, which is strange because normally I never want to lose. But the Sachsenring is one of the worst circuits for my riding style and I have never won here, so it is important to be on the podium when you are not so good. I want to win but sometimes you can’t. The problem is that Dani was much faster and to follow him I had to take so many risks. I decided to drop the pace and finish second and this is still a positive result.”

Lorenzo said the stoppage after Randy de Puniet, Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista all crashed had knocked him out of his stride, adding: “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. I had a few more problems with the tires.”

Lorenzo will now bid to continue his golden run going in California this weekend. He produced a heroic performance at the spectacular Laguna Seca circuit a year ago after taking third just 24 hours after breaking a collarbone in a massive qualifying high-side. Assessing his prospects as he prepared for the first of two visits to America in just over a month, the double world 250GP champion said: “It is a very special track and very famous, but I had a big crash last year in qualifying and broke my collarbone. I still made a great race last year and I will try and win there this year because I’ve never done it before. Laguna is a track where I struggle, but not as much as here.”

Casey Stoner continued his recent MotoGP revival with a brilliant last ditch overtake to deny Valentino Rossi a heroic podium on his return to action in Germany. Stoner and Rossi were locked in an engrossing battle for the most of the second part of the race, which was shortened to 21-laps after a three-rider pile-up forced out the red flags. Stoner, who fitted a used Bridgestone rear tire for the restart, feared the worst as he came under intense pressure from a hard charging Rossi at the halfway stage. The Italian, back in action just six weeks after he broke his right leg, closed down a 1.9s deficit on Stoner and grabbed third on Lap 15. What followed was an endless exchange of overtakes between the two, reminiscent of their titanic tussle at Laguna Seca in 2008. Stoner though was happier with the outcome on this occasion as he left it late to relegate Rossi to fourth.

Rossi had done everything he could to defend third as he rode a tight line at the penultimate corner. Stoner though ran a sweeping line on his factory Ducati GP10 and got excellent drive approaching the final corner. Stoner then produced a brilliant block pass on Rossi to take his third successive third-place by just 0.366s.

“The end of the race was a really nice battle. At the start we could see that Valentino was able to run a little bit higher lap times than I was. I was pretty much at the limit and I was quite thankful for the crash. Not thankful it happened obviously but it helped me more than some of the others I think. We felt in the first part I didn’t have a rear tire that worked anywhere near as well as it had over the weekend, so we went with an old tire that we’d used in qualifying and the grip was immediately better. There was something wrong with that first tire because I had no grip from Lap 1 on the left side. The right was fine but on the left there was nothing and it was almost was like using the hard compound. As soon as we changed it back to yesterday's tire it felt like it had all weekend and I could run higher lap times. I got a little bit held up behind Dovizioso and I tried everything I could to try and catch Jorge and Dani, but I didn’t have the pace. As soon as Dani got in front the gap stretched out. Valentino then started taking some big chunks out of me and when he came by I thought it was going to be a case of see you later. But I could stay with him and as soon as I felt comfortable I made the overtake. It was back and forth but at the last corner I was able to get the better of him. He went very tight at the bottom of the hill and I opted to try and get a better run on him and have a go at the last corner. When he tried to close the door I was already there. I’m happy with the way things worked out.”

Stoner denied that his late success had exacted some revenge for his bitter ’08 defeat at Laguna Seca.

“We’ve had plenty of nice battles. In these last three years I’ve had some fantastic races, even in 2006 when he passed me and took off. It is always about who is your greatest rival and for me it is all about who is strong on the day. We had a fantastic battle today with a lot of overtaking and we were able to run similar lap times. He was a little bit faster but I could make a difference and I could stay with him and I enjoyed it.”

Dani Pedrosa put the brakes on Jorge Lorenzo’s relentless surge to the 2010 MotoGP world title with a deserved victory in Germany yesterday. Pedrosa lost the lead in the restarted race on the second lap to Lorenzo as the Spanish pair had little trouble in quickly stretching away from the chasing pack. Pedrosa stalked Lorenzo until Lap 10 when he opted to make his crucial move at the first corner. Expecting Lorenzo to try and counter attack, Pedrosa’s turned in a series of impressively fast laps and his speed was too much for the Fiat Yamaha rider to contend with. Pedrosa continued to pull away and eventually claimed a comfortable second win of the season by 3.35s to claw back five precious points in the title hunt. The Repsol Honda rider now trails Lorenzo by 47-points as he heads to Laguna Seca bidding for a second successive victory in the American MotoGP.

It was very hard because in the first race Jorge and me were going so well and suddenly we saw the red flag. We were going so well we didn’t want to stop and sometimes when you stop it is not the same afterwards. Sometimes you don’t have the same feeling on the machine in the second part. Also you get nervous again on the grid. I was a little bit worried about this but when I restarted I felt good again. He passed me on the first lap, but we were going good again and alone at the front. I passed him but tried to go a little bit faster and my bike worked very well this weekend. Then it was a great feeling to stretch ahead and get the victory - the team deserved it. This victory is even better than the one in Italy because at Mugello I just went away in front and there was no battle with anybody, but here I was battling with Lorenzo in the first and second race, and finally beat him, so this is even more important.”

Pedrosa denied he could have inflicted a similar comprehensive defeat on Lorenzo if the race had not been stopped after a major collision involving Randy de Puniet, Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista.

I don’t know because when the race was stopped I just switched off my brain from the first part. If you think about it you can make a mistake in the second race. It is a completely different race with the tires used already and you have to restart. It is not easy to stay cool and do the race again in a perfect way but I could do this.”

Pedrosa’s win was his third straight podium and he believes now that he is finding some consistency with the factory Honda RC212V. Finding a competitive set-up quickly has been a big issue for Pedrosa in 2010, and he said “The team has its feet on the floor because the bike is so sensitive this year and it is easy to make mistakes with the set-up. We try not to make any mistake with the setting decisions and we know the bike is so sensitive that we can’t make any mistake. It is easy to get lost but we have found some consistency. We are being more constant than at the start of the season and this is good.”

Roger Lee Hayden, younger brother of factory Ducati rider Nicky Hayden, will replace injured Randy de Puniet in this weekend’s American MotoGP race at Laguna Seca. Hayden will substitute for French rider De Puniet after he broke his left tibia and fibula in a crash during yesterday’s German MotoGP encounter at Sachsenring.

Lucio Cecchinello was locked in discussions with HRC management on Sunday evening in Germany, trying to hastily arrange injury cover for De Puniet, who underwent successful surgery to pin his damaged left leg on Sunday night. Roger Lee, who has landed a wild card in the Indianapolis Moto2 race in late August, was confirmed as De Puniet’s replacement late last night. He is currently riding for the Pedercini squad on a Kawasaki ZX-10R in World Superbikes. Nicky Hayden will certainly be able to give his younger brother some advice after having twice won his home race at Laguna Seca in 2005 and ’06. But he is no stranger to the American MotoGP, having raced as a wild card for Kawasaki back in 2007. He finished in a creditable 10th-place.

A second big crash in less than 24 hours left luckless French rider Randy de Puniet with a double break in his left leg at Sachsenring. Having escaped injury when he crashed at high speed on oil dropped by Jorge Lorenzo in qualifying, De Puniet wasn’t so fortunate when he high-sided out of Sunday’s race on Lap 10. The LCR Honda rider landed heavily and suffered a broken left tibia and fibula when his leg was run over by Mika Kallio’s Pramac Ducati. The race was red flagged as De Puniet’s stricken bike caused chaos with Spanish duo Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista both suffering heavy falls. The 29-year-old, who had scored five top-six finishes in the opening seven races, was flown by helicopter to the Hartmannsdorf Hospital where he underwent surgery on Sunday night to insert a pin in his left leg.

“It can’t be worse than this. I had a bad start from the third row but I was back to ninth and my race pace was pretty good. I could push for sixth-place despite my painful ankle after the crash in qualifying. Suddenly I crashed at the exit of Turn 4 and one bike hit my left leg. I immediately realized that it was something serious and after the X-ray we discovered the truth”.

Espargaro is confident he will be fit after he landed heavily and suffered damage to his neck and right wrist. Checks at a hospital in nearby Chemnitz showed up a broken seventh vertebra, but his Pramac Ducati team believed it to be an old injury and he was flying to California with the intention of contesting this weekend’s Laguna Seca race.

“That was an unlucky race for me. I was reducing the gap on the riders ahead of me and I could easily fight with them for eighth position. Unfortunately I found De Puniet's bike was lying on the track in front of me and I could not avoid it. I had a big pain in my right wrist and in my neck, I wanted to make the warm up lap of the second race to see my physical condition and if I was able to ride for the second race, but I couldn’t do this. I just made X-rays at the circuit and fortunately nothing is broken. I had further checks in Chemnitz and they have found that my vertebra C7 is broken. But I am confident I can attend the race in America.”

Factory Suzuki rider Bautista was also uninjured, but he was unable to make the restart over 21-laps having failed to return to the pits with his bike within five minutes of the red flag being waved. It meant the second race commencing with just 13 bikes, and the former world 125GP champion said: “It has been a bit of a disaster. I didn’t start that well and I couldn’t get enough warmth in the right-side of the tire early on. After the first few laps I managed to get a good rhythm and was able to stay with the group for the top-10 positions. After nine laps Randy crashed and I had some riders in front of me and I couldn’t see where his bike was on the track, but when the other riders disappeared I saw the bike in front of me and I couldn’t do anything to avoid it, so I crashed. I then couldn’t get to the box with my bike, so I couldn’t start again. The regulation is the regulation, but in this case maybe there could’ve been an exception because I crashed due to Randy, not for something I had done.”