Sachsenring, Germany – Defending world champion Marc Marquez has bounced back from a disappointing (so far) 2015 season to dominate the German Grand Prix at Sachsenring, for his sixth consecutive win (all from pole) at a circuit he has made peculiarly his own.
In the Moto3 race, Krugersdorp brothers Brad and Darryn Binder kept the South African flag flying with a fighting seventh for Brad and a solid 20th for Darryn.
MOTOGP
Yamaha factory rider Jorge Lorenzo came off the front row of the grid to lead the first four laps from works Honda team-mates Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, with championship leader Valentino Rossi fourth.
But after Marquez disposed of the Yamaha rider on lap five he was never challenged for the lead.
“From the beginning I felt good,” he said afterwards, “and when I had the gap I just tried to manage it. I'm happy because this weekend we’ve been always first and it has been a long time since I had that.”
Pedrosa, who had also won six times previously at Sachsenring across the MotoGP and 250cc classes, finished second in a Repsol Honda 1-2. He said afterwards the turning point came at half-distance.
“When the tank emptied at the middle of the race I was comfortable and I went straight past Jorge. Then I went about catching Rossi but he wasn’t easy to pass. On corner exit the Yamaha is strong. Then I made the move and had to push at the end. I had to push a little more than him as he was really trying!”
Veteran Rossi had passed Pedrosa for third on lap eight and relegated his team-mate three laps later to move up to second - but never looked like challenging for the lead, which was unimportant anyway in terms of the standings as long as he was ahead of Lorenzo.
Pedrosa finally got by again on the 17th of 30 laps and immediately opened a small but crucial gap.
“I think that Dani had something in his pocket,” said Rossi after the race. “I was at the limit with a constant rhythm, but at one point he was able to pull out two very fast laps, I tried to battle but he was too quick. Anyway it's another podium, I gained three points on Jorge, which is important for the championship.
“We know that we always suffer here against the Hondas, so we'll wait for a better track for the M1!”
Rossi finished third, four seconds ahead of his team-mate, and extended his lead over Lorenzo at the top of the standings to 13 points.
Ducati Team rider Andrea Iannone was fifth ahead of British riders Bradley Smith (Yamaha Tech 3) and Cal Crutchlow (Honda), with Smith’s satellite Yamaha team-mate Pol Espargaro, Ducati privateer Danilo Petrucci and Espargaro’s younger brother Aleix on the factory Suzuki completing the top 10.
Belgian rider Xavier Simeon took his first ever race win in his sixth season in Moto2, ahead of Johann Zarco and Alex Rins for an all-Kalex podium.
Zarco started from pole for the third consecutive race but dropped down to third in the Turn 1 traffic jam as Franco Morbidelli (also Kalex-mounted) and Simeon came storming off the grid to take the top slots – but that didn’t last long as Zarco soon retook the lead.
Morbidelli had opted for a softer rear tyre and was able to stay with Zarco until half-distance, but fell back as the tyre went off in the closing stages, losing second when
Simeon began his charge with nine laps to go, and third to Tito Rabat (Kalex) in the closing stages.
Simeon finally took the lead with just four laps to go and held on to win by just 0.083sec - but Morbidelli made a final attempt at the last podium spot in the final corner, went in too hot and skittled Rabat, taking them both out of the results, handing third to Rins.
Simone Corsi (Kalex) finished fourth ahead of Sam Lowes (Speed Up) and Kalex riders Thomas Luthi, Takaaki Nakagami and Lorenzo Baldassarri, with Julian Simon (Speed Up) and Dominique Aegerter (Kalex) completing the top 10.
Simeon was overjoyed to claim a long overdue first victory, the first by a Belgian rider since Didier de Radigues at Spa in 1983. He said: “I made a good race and a good pace, I was confident because my bike was very good all weekend. A lot of times in the past I've started from the first row but I didn't take the opportunity to get on the podium, so this time I thought OK, I'll take it.”
MOTO3
Honda rider Danny Kent topped the timesheets in every single session of the weekend, starting from pole for the third time in 2015 to take his fifth win of the season after pulling away from the pack in the early stages.
That made him the Briton to win a lightweight Grand Prix at the Sachsenring since Dave Simmonds won at the original road circuit in 1969 - and the first Honda rider to win the class in Germany since Marco Melandri won the 125cc GP at the Sachsenring in 1999.
Kent said: “I didn’t have a great start, the first few laps I was sliding a bit, but the tyre got better after about five laps. We’ve been strong all weekend which gave me great confidence and I knew I had a chance to pull away.”
Kent's team-mate Efren Vazquez came in second, with Enea Bastianini, on another Honda, completing the podium, after a last-lap battle with Romano Fenati (KTM) and Niccolo Antonelli (Honda) that came down to a photo finish.
Jorge Navarro (Honda) and Brad Binder were next, Binder finishing less than a quarter of a second behind third-placed Bastianini. Alexis Masbou (Honda), Andrea Locatelli (Honda) and Niklas Ajo (KTM) rounded out the top 10.