Happy hunting ground
DEFENDING CHAMPION HAS WON EIGHT RACES IN A ROW HERE Rossi desperate to make up for last season’s flop.
Championship leader Marc Marquez said he will use his victory in last week’s epic Assen race as motivation going into tomorrow’s German Moto GP at Sachsenring.
The Repsol Honda rider finished atop the podium in the Netherlands after an incredible race that saw the first 15 riders cross the line just 16.043sec apart.
It was the closest ever top-15 finish of all time, and a timely boost for Spaniard Marquez.
The track at Sachsenring is the shortest on the calendar at 3.67km, but it is also tight and twisty, so could also throw up a close finish.
What is sure is that Marquez and Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa have dominated the German track, a road-based circuit in and around the city of Chemnitz. They have won a staggering 14 times between them and stood together on the podium three times, in 2014, 2015 and 2017.
Marquez has taken eight consecutive victories across three classes at the German circuit where 10 of its 13 corners are left-handed, each success remarkably coming after starting from pole position.
After kicking off in the 125cc category in 2010, the Spaniard went on to win twice in Moto2 (2011, 2012) and then five times in MotoGP (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017).
Pedrosa’s last MotoGP victory here came in 2012, having also won in 2007, 2010 and 2011.
“The victory we scored at Assen was important because it was a race where it was incredibly easy to make a mistake, but instead we were able to increase our advantage in the championship,” Marquez said.
“Now we go to a very different circuit where we’re normally very strong, but every year is different.”
Marquez added: “Weather could play an important role, as we’ve seen in the past: if it’s rainy or mixed, everything will change very quickly and you must be ready.
“So we’ll see. We’ll go there and try to find our level and be strong from the start of the weekend. Then on Sunday we’ll try and fight for the podium again.”
Pedrosa, who announced this week he’ll retire at the end of the season, admitted that the Sachsenring is “a track I like”.
“In the second part of the race at Assen, we managed to lap at a better pace than we did during the rest of the weekend, so we’ll try and build on that at Sachsenring.”
Marquez has amassed 140 points from the first eight GPs of the season, with 10 more to be won after this weekend’s outing.
In second and third are the Yamaha duo of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales (99 and 93pts respectively). Frenchman Johann Zarco of the Yamaha Tech3 team is fourth (81), just ahead of Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and Honda’s Cal Crutchlow (both 79).
Italian Rossi, who was fifth in Assen and is yet to win this season, has nine podiums at Sachsenring, including four victories.
However, Rossi finished nearly 15 seconds behind Marquez at the track last season, something he wants to remedy.
“Last year’s German GP was not a very positive weekend for us,
1. Marc Marquez (Esp/Honda) 140 Points, 2. Valentino Rossi (Ita/ Yamaha) 99, 3. Maverick Vinales (Esp/Yamaha) 93, 4. Johann Zarco (Fra/Yamaha Tech3) 81, 5. Andrea Dovizioso (Ita/Ducati) 79, 6. Cal Crutchlow (Gbr/Honda) 79, 7. Jorge Lorenzo (Esp/Ducati) 75, 8. Danilo Petrucci (Ita/Ducati) 71, 9. Andrea Iannone (Ita/Suzuki) 71, 10. Jack Miller (Aus/Ducati) 55 so it will be very important to understand our potential this weekend,” he said.
Rossi added: “The race at the Sachsenring is the last race before the short MotoGP summer break, so we want to do our best to make it a good battle, to end the first half of the season in a good way.” – AFP