Valentino Rossi fights for the victory until the last corner.
Exciting MotoGP race with photo finish between Rossi and Gibernau. Fonsi Nieto, second, back in the fight for the 250cc title.
The German Sachsenring circuit, with its special technical features, and the twistiest layout of the world championship, has been again venue of three exciting racing with very tight finishes. In the premier category, Valentino Rossi made a magnificent race together with Sete Gibernau, final winner. Leader right after the start and setting a fast pace, the Repsol rider opened a big gap with regard to the rest of the pack. Once he had left them behind, Rossi kept a pace only Gibernau was able to improve until catching up with him at mid race. From that moment on, both Honda riders have been watching each other to get ready for the last laps. With Gibernau first and Rossi second at the beginning of the last lap, Rossi set off for the final attack, overtaking the Spanish rider in the downhill section, two corners before the finish line. But a mistake of the Italian in the last corner allowed Gibernau to cross the finish line first, thus reducing Rossi’s advantage in the overall standings by five points to 29. The other member of the Repsol Honda Team, the North American Nicky Hayden, showed today his good riding qualities achieving a meritorious fifth final position, having started from fifteenth. During the race, Hayden had overtaken much more experienced riders such as Ukawa, Nakano, Checa, Jacque, Abe and McWilliams.
The 250cc race experienced also an intense battle for victory and for positions in the fight for the championship title. Bad day for Poggiali, who despite crashing, was able to rejoin the race finishing eighth, allowing Fonsi, who finished second, to reduce the advantage of the San Marino rider to only three points. The race victory was for the Italian Roberto Rolfo who knew how to keep his position during the last lap, despite the strong pressure from Nieto and thus managed to clinch his first ever victory in the championship. Toni Elias, with mechanical problems after the sighting lap, was forced to start with the second bike from the last place of the grid. From the start, Elias began to make up positions making it to the final seventh place. Sebastián Porto, despite starting from the first position on the grid, was not able to keep up with the leading group and finished fourth. Both riders of the Aspar Junior Team, Joan Olivé and Hector Faubel, were involved in a crash at the end of the straight right after the start. Faubel had to get back to the pits while his team-mate Olivé was able to rejoin the race finishing seventeenth.
In the minor category, what it seemed would be another chance for Héctor Barberá to step on the podium was gone after the Race Direction imposed a Stop&Go penalty on the young Repsol rider, after considering that he had made a jump start. Barberá, who had made a good start and was leading the race when he was called into pits, rejoined the race on twenty-third position. After spending the whole racing making up positions he finally managed to finish fourteenth. His team-mate Pablo Nieto, who did not make a good start, also moved forward and managed to finish fifth after being fifteenth in the first lap of the race. Dani Pedrosa finished fourth after keeping up with the leading group throughout the race. Unfortunately, the setting problems that have been following him all weekend didn’t allow him to fight for the podium. But Dani is still leading the Championship with a twenty-point advantage over the Italian Stefano Perugini, who took his second victory of the season today.
