Victory for Dani Pedrosa and meritorious podium finish for Nicky Hayden.
Max Biaggi fourth in MotoGP. In the 250cc, Aoyama third, Porto fifth and De Puniet sixth.
Nicky Hayden did not win today at the German Sachsenring circuit but showed his maturity and his readiness to do bigger things, ratifying that what happened at Laguna Seca was no mere flash in the pan. Despite setting the pole and starting from the lead in both race starts – Hopkins crashed on lap six forcing a new race start – Hayden could not avoid being overtaken by Gibernau and Rossi halfway the race. But far from giving up and loosing ground on both leaders of the race, the Repsol Honda Team rider kept at their wheels and was just about to overtake Gibernau in the last lap. Despite everything, his third place after the result in Donington is a good result before holidays.
The second race, the scoring one, was initially a copy of the first one: Hayden, Gibernau, Rossi and Barros, in this order, opened a gap to the rest of the riders making their own race. On this occasion Max Biaggi put himself behind Barros and managed to stay in touch with the leading group. A few laps before the end of the race Gibernau and Rossi fought for the victory with Hayden third, watchful. The final victory went to the leader of the overall standings, Valentino Rossi, followed by Gibernau and Nicky Hayden. Max Biaggi crossed the finish line fourth, after overtaking Alex Barros.
In the 250cc race, fifth victory for Dani Pedrosa, who thus extends his advantage in the lead of the overall standings to 50 points with seven races left to be staged. The race hasn’t been exempt of incidents and what was finally a happy end for Pedrosa could have been a cero. On lap five he touched with Lorenzo and the latter ended up on the tarmac while Pedrosa had one of his exhaust pipes completely bent. Fortunately it was nothing more than a fright and after a couple of laps the Repsol rider overtook the rest of the riders making up the leading group -Aoyama, De Angelis and Dovizioso- escaping all alone and finishing the race with an advantage of more than seven seconds over De Angelis, second, and Repsol rider Aoyama third. Sebastián Porto and Randy De Puniet had an average weekend, both finishing the race out of the podium places. Both lost contact to the leading group from the beginning of the race and from that moment on lapped all by themselves during most of the race. Porto managed to catch-up with Aoyama and Dovizioso who were fighting for the third step of the podium in the last laps, but finally had to settle for the fifth place. His teammate De Puniet finished one place behind the Argentinean rider.
Short and average performance of the Repsol riders in the 125cc race that finished ahead of schedule with Finn rider Kallio taking the victory. The race started with a crowded group in the lead, including Sergio Gadea. Héctor Faubel, who was fifteenth after the first lap crashed out during the second lap. It wasn’t Sergio Gadea’s lucky day either and only a couple of laps later he crashed as well losing any chance for a Repsol rider to get on the podium of this class today. Joan Olivé, who made a very good start and was fifth after the first lap, lost some positions during the initial laps but recovered during the final ones finally crossing the finish line in eighth place. The spectacular accident suffered by Poggiali with his bike ending up in the middle of the track, forced the race direction to stop the race with six laps to go. Winner was Finn rider Kallio who was joined on the podium by Luthi and Simoncelli.
Repsol rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden
3rd, 3505.319:
I really though I might have something for them at the end of the race but it wasnt to be. In the last few laps I closed right up on them. Im not happy about third but Im happy about what I learned today. I was riding with two of the top guys in the world and I went to school on them for 30 laps. I feel like I learned a lot from them. I told my boys last night that we could be looking at 25 points but it wasnt to be. They did a great job and got the bike set-up real well. Once you get that taste for winning you just want more. After so long being off the top of the box, Laguna felt so, so good. I just want that feeling back again real bad.
MotoGP. Max Biaggi
4th, 3507.289:
Well, not so good again Im afraid. I had to start from the third row as the first race was not so good and I was lying in eighth place when the race was stopped. In the end I made it past Barros and we get fourth place but I am not satisfied. How can I be? We are still fighting with the same problems all season. The front is still jumping and has chatter. It really makes me mad as I know I still have the ability and the motivation to win. At the moment we can only finish on the back and I am very frustrated. I never give up. I will train hard over the summer and will come back after the break at Brno full of spirit for the race and for the rest of the season.
250. Dani Pedrosa
1st, 4135.089:
Another perfect weekend after all what happened. First of all I want to thank the team and all those around me. I started the race within the group, relaxed and I suddenly noticed that somebody hit me from the back. The bike went up and I avoided the crash like a miracle. Once I could I looked back and saw that the exhaust pipe was hanging. I was a bit scared because I remembered that something similar happened to Stoner last year and he crashed. The pipe touched the track on the left-side corners and the bike lost power. But once I saw that I was able to push harder I focussed on setting my pace and reached the finish very well. Were going on holidays in high spirits and looking forward to having some rest in order to be back in top shape for the second half of the championship.
250. Hiroshi Aoyama
3rd, 4146.260:
Im very happy with the podium finish and todays race. After the disaster experienced in England its been a good reward. Its been a hard race, but Ive had a lot of fun. I started very concentratedand tried to follow Dani but its been impossible. I focussed to set my pace and was strong towards the end. I gave it all in the last lap to stand Doviziosos and Portos attack. We had started well from Friday and I didnt want to miss it again.
250. Sebastián Porto
5th, 4146.533:
It was a very hard race and the whole team put in lots of effort. We had problems with the set-up all weekend and that harmed us in the race today. I found cornering quite hard at the beginning, but by the middle of the race things got better and I was able to challenge Aoyama and Dovizioso. I am happy with the effort we put in and we have picked up more points which is important. We will try and get away from everything during the break and get ready for the second half of the season.
250. Randy De Puniet
6th, 4152.625:
I am not too happy, after my win at Donington I wanted to get up on the podium again today. We had to work hard all weekend because we had problems with the engine all weekend which cost us in qualifying. I felt comfortable in the race but soon got a problem with the rear wheel when I cornered and that made it very difficult to keep pace with the lead riders. I will use the break to think about how I can improve in the remaining races.
125. Joan Olivé
8th, 3002.051:
Its been a nice race. I started from the back, seventeenth, because we had a lot of problems during the practices. Although small, the differences were there but we found a better set-up during the warm-up that bore fruit during the race. I made a very good start and thanks to the improvements I was able to keep myself in the leading group. When the red black was waved I had passed Lai and was actually seventh, but since the lap counting for the classification is the previous one, I finished eighth. Im very happy with the result anyway, although there are still some aspects that have to be improved. We have to keep on working because we must be capable of finding the best set-up quicker to be better during the practice. I hope to be able to make the next step we need in Brno.
125. Héctor Faubel,
crashed out:
It was a difficult weekend and I found it hard to adapt to this circuit. From the first day I had problems with the set-up but we worked hard to find a solution and seemed to have done so. Theres not much I can say about the race: I fell on the second lap, luckily I did not do any damage but I wanted to do better today.
Track conditions
- Weather: sunny
- Temp: 20º-23º
- Track temp: 26º-30º
- Humidity: 18-27%
- Wind: 8 Km/h
Tyre´s choice
- Héctor Faubel: Medium – Hard
- Joan Olivé: Medium – Hard
- Sebastián Porto: Medium – Medium
- Randy De Puniet: Medium – Medium
- Dani Pedrosa: Medium – Medium
- Hiroshi Aoyama: Medium – Medium
- Max Biaggi: Medium – Medium
- Nicky Hayden: Medium – Medium
Standings:
125
- M.Kallio (Fin/KTM) 29.46.795
- T.Luthi (Sui/Honda) 29.46.929
- M.Simoncelli (Ita/Aprilia) 29.47.083
- G.Talmacsi (Hun/KTM) 29.47.276
8. J.Olivé (Esp/Aprilia) 30.02.051
World Championship
- T.Luthi, 119 points
- M.Kallio, 116.
- G.Talmacasi, 113.
- M.Simoncelli, 101.
10. H.Faubel, 50.
250
- D.Pedrosa (Esp/Honda) 41.35.089
- A.de Angelis (Rsm/Aprilia) 41.43.029
- H.Aoyama (Jap/Honda) 41.46.260
- A.Dovizioso (Ita/Honda) 41.46.435
- S.Porto (Arg/Aprilia) 41.46.533
- R.de Puniet (Fra/Aprilia) 41.52.625
World Championship
- D.Pedrosa, 181 points
- C.Stoner, 131.
- A.Dovizioso, 124.
- S.Porto, 96.
- R.de Puniet, 89
MotoGP
- V.Rossi (Ita/Yamaha) 35.04.434
- S.Gibernau (Esp/Honda) 35.05.119
- N.Hayden (Usa/Honda) 35.05.319
- M.Biaggi (Ita/Honda) 35.06.799
- A.Barros (Bra/Honda) 35.07.289
World Championship:
- V.Rossi, 236 points
- M.Melandri, 116.
- S.Gibernau, 115.
- C.Edwards, 114.
- M.Biaggi, 113.
7.N.Hayden, 101.
