Sachsenring, Germany – After both junior classes were run in pouring rain, Marc Marquez took an enormous gamble by opting for slicks rather than intermediates when a dry line began to appear appearing during the MotoGP race – and it paid off.
Neither Moto3 championship leader Brad Binder nor his closest rival Jorge Navarro were willing to gamble with the championship at stake, however, and played it safe with mid-field placings
MOTOGP
Ducati Team leader Andrea Dovizioso and Yamaha veteran Valentino Rossi set the early pace, with Dovizioso opening a lead of almost two seconds as the track began to dry.
Dovizioso’s team-mate Andrea Iannone was the first to pit for intermediate tyres on lap 12. Over the course of the following laps most of the field followed suit, choosing a variety of slick and intermediate combinations.
Honda’s defending champion Marquez was simply unable to match the pace of the leading riders as the race began, battling with Ducati privateeer Hector Barbera for fifth. He was clearly struggling, running off at Turn 8 and lucky to stay upright.
On lap 17 he pitted for slicks, which proved to be a masterstroke as his lap times were immediately four seconds faster than those on wets leading the race. With six laps to go he took the lead and never looked back, going on to take a seventh consecutive win at the Sachsenring, stretching his lead in the standings to 48 points.
Lap after lap the track dried and lap after lap Honda privateer Cal Crutchlow got faster; he was fourth on lap 19 as several riders began to pit, still pushing his wets around. He followed Dovizioso into the pits soon after, re-joining with his former team-mate to battle for the podium.
Having opted for slicks, Crutchlow found himself right behind Ducati privateer Scott Redding and in the hunt for second place. There was no love lost between the Brits, Crutchlow breaking Redding to secure second – his first podium finish since Argentina in 2015.
Known for his ability in the wet, Dovizioso shot straight into podium contention as the race began, pressuring for the lead. ‘Desmo Dovi’ sat behind Crutchlow’s Pramac team-mate Danilo Petrucci for several laps before inheriting the lead when Petrucci fell on lap 11.
But the field was rapidly closing and after a long struggle on wets he finally made the call to pit, prompting every rider behind to follow suit. The group re-joined to battle it out for third, with Dovizioso passing Redding on the final lap to take his second podium of the year.
The disappointment was clear to see on Redding’s face after holding onto third until the very last lap, although fourth was still his second best finish of a year plagued by technical issues.
Like Redding, Iannone had opted for intermediates and was ruled out of the final podium battle, settling for fifth. Dani Pedrosa on the second works Honda took a solid sixth ahead of Honda privateer Jack Miller, who was the last to pit for new rubber.
Valentino Rossi was strong from the start of the race but waited until Dovizioso and Crutchlow, with whom he was battling, had pitted for tyres to come in. As a result he came home eighth, closing in on team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in the standings but losing out to Marquez once more.
Lorenzo was inside the top ten as the race got underway, but as in Assen he began to fade as the race went on and slowly dropped back. It was even worse than in Assen, Lorenzo taking a single point for 15th place.
MOTO2
Johann Zarco (Kalex) grabbed the lead in what has become the ‘Kalex Cup’, hotly pursued by Alex Rins and Takaaki Nakagami, both of whom soon went ahead as Zarco faded early in the race.
Several crashes ahead soon saw him back in podium contention, however, and closing in on the leaders as he adjusted to the conditions. Soon Zarco was one of five riders fighting for the win, chasing down Franco Morbidelli until the Italian crashed out of the lead.
Having briefly led his home Grand Prix early in the race, Jonas Folger lost contact with the leading riders during the middle of the race. His hopes of a home podium looked over until the rain stopped, the track drying slightly and allowing him to push closer to the limit.
Before long he was past Rins and up into second place, sliding up the inside of Zarco at the final corner but was unable to get the drive to the line. Nevertheless, finishing second gave Folger his first ever podium at home in Germany and was by far his best result at the Sachsenring.
Rins looked comfortable in third until he crashed out at Turn 1, promoting Speed Up rider Julian Simon (one of only two finishers not Kalex mounted) to a surprise third – his first since the Valencia GP in 2012 - despite nursing an injured ankle. Simon was almost in tears as he was interviewed after the race.
Lorenzo Baldassarri was declared unfit for the race after dislocating his right shoulder in a crash during the warm-up session, but persuaded the medics to put his shoulder back in and let him race. After a tough but steady ride Baldassarri was rewarded with fifth after a number of riders crashed out ahead of him, with Luca Marini, Hafizh Syahrin, Jesko Raffin, Isaac Vinales (Tech 3) and Dominique Aegerter completing the top 10 in a race of attrition that saw only 15 finishers from 27 starters.
MOTO3
With rain belting down on the grid, Malaysian rookie Khairul Idham Pawi (Honda), who’d rattled a lot of cages with a masterful win in the wet in Argentina could hardly contain his smile on the grid.
By the end of the first lap, Pawi had shot from 20th to seventh and was well and truly in contention. As lap five began he hit the front and as in Argentina, with clear track ahead of him he was able to fly, easily lapping a second faster than the pack.
At the start of lap 14 he ran off the circuit, but still didn’t slow down back off, stretching his lead with each lap and crossing the line 11.131s ahead of second. Pawi was the first Malaysian to win a Grand Prix and now becomes the first to win two!
Andrea Locatelli (KTM) had a quiet opening lap but rallied as the race went on, battling with John McPhee (Peugeot) for third, soon promoted to second when Honda rider Hiroki Ono went off the track after miraculously saving a certain highside. He briefly came under pressure from Enea Bastianini (Honda) but held on to take second, for a career-first podium.
Bastianini made an excellent start from pole and led into Turn 1, followed by Bo Bendsneyder (KTM). He lost several positions during the opening half of the race but gathered himself as the race went on, charging back into podium contention. He and McPhee sparred for third in the treacherous conditions, soon joined by Jakub Kornfeil (Honda). Bastianini fnally broke away to take his second podium of the year, a little disappointed by the wet conditions.
With Pawi powering away at the front, very few people noticed Kornfeil’s charge. He battled hard for the podium but was unable to match Bastianini in the final laps, finishing fourth, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio (Honda) who got the best of a tight three-way battle with McPhee and Jorge Navarro (Honda) to complete the top five.
Binder, having battled most of the way with title rival Navarro for seventh, settled for eighth in the end, his lead in the championship decreasing by just one point to 47.
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