MotoGP – Sachsenring Preview

The MotoGP circus heads to the Sachsenring in Germany for round nine this weekend. Valentino Rossi leads the championship by nine points over second placed Jorge Lorenzo and sixteen points over Casey Stoner in third. Rossi is the only one of the top four riders in the championship who isn’t fighting injuries or illness. Lorenzo dislocated his collarbone and injured his foot at Laguna Seca, Stoner has been diagnosed with a condition of "slight gastritis and mild anemia" that has affected his stamina in the last three races and Dani Pedrosa is recovering from a leg injury.

The Sachsenring circuit is an anti-clockwise circuit where the majority of the turns are long, fast left hand corners. Bridgestone will be using the hard and extra hard compound asymmetric Bridgestone slicks that they used at the Catalunya race. Last year’s race was run in the wet, and Pedrosa crashed while leading the race and the championship. Stoner went on to win the race, and was followed across the line by Rossi and Chris Vermulen.

With an eighth place finish at Assen and a fifth at Laguna Seca Nicky Hayden is having his best run of the season on the factory Ducati. Hayden has 4 podium finishes, 5 top fives and 2 front row starts in his six races at the Sachsenring. The former world champion sits twelfth in the championship with 38 points.

The Grupo Francisco Hernando team has withdrawn from the MotoGP championship due to the global financial crisis. The team was running a Ducati for Sete Gibernau who had returned to the series after a two year absence. The Spaniard was sitting seventeenth in the championship with twelve points. The move reduces the championship to seventeen riders. Both Grupo Francisco Hernando and Marco Melandri’s Hayate team have indicated that they will not be returning to the championship next year.

MotoGP Qualifying - Rossi quickest