FIM Red Bull Rookies Cup Sachsenring, Germany July 7, 2012 Race One Results (wet conditions, all on KTM RC125s and Dunlop tires): 1. Scott DEROUE, Netherlands, 17 laps, 27:58.280 2. Willi ALBERT, Germany, -1.204 seconds 3. Karel HANIKA, Czech Republic, -17.340 4. Lukas TRAUTMANN, Austria, -20.507 5. Florian ALT, Germany, -21.611 6. Marcos RAMIREZ, Spain, -23.505 7. Philipp OETTL, Germany, -23.558 8. Hafiq AZMI, Malaysia, -23.866 9. Stefano MANZI, Italy, -24.270 10. Aaron ESPAÑA, Spain, -24.660 13. Joe ROBERTS, USA, -32.569 More, from a press release issued by Red Bull: Scott Deroue won a cat and mouse race with Willi Albert to claim the 1st Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race of the German Grand Prix weekend at the Sachsenring. The 16 year old Dutchman crossed the line ahead of the 14 year old German after a fascinating battle on a rapidly drying circuit, both having to look after their rain tyres. Some 16 seconds behind them, 16 year old Czech Karel Hanika completed the rostrum positions and improved his Cup chances by closing the gap on Florian Alt and Philipp Oettl at the head of the table. The 16 year old Germans started way down the grid after the single wet qualifying session and both Oettl, from 9th and Alt, from 15th were slow to make up ground from the start. By the time they had fought their way forward, Deroue, Albert and Hanika were well away in the lead and Lukas Trautmann, the 16 year old Austrian had established himself in a clear 4th. So Alt and Oettl were contesting 5th and having to fight hard for it with 15 year old Malaysian Hafiq Azmi, Stefano Manzi the 13 year old Italian, Aaron Espana the 14 year old Spaniard and reigning Cup champion Lorenzo Baldassarri, the 15 year old Italian. It was a great battle for 5th and in the last 2 laps the 6 man group was joined by Marcos Ramirez following the 14 year old Spaniard’s great charge through the field from 18th at the end of lap 1. In those last 2 laps he cut through the group to split Alt and Oettl on the line with Alt claiming the points for 5th and increasing his advantage over Oettl in the Cup table to 10. Deroue improved his points reckoning tremendously and is now only 2 behind Oettl and 12 behind Alt but for the moment he was only thinking of his 3rd win of the season. “That was a fun race, I got a good start and managed to have the lead into the 1st corner but I wanted to take it easy and feel out the track. Willi and some of the others were going fast though so I had to go with them. It wasn’t too bad, I had a good feeling for the tyres and I tried to look after them as much as I could, using the wet parts of the track to keep them a bit cool. I left it to the end and had one go to lead but he got back in front then on the last lap he was a bit wide and I gave it full gas.” Albert had done most of the leading, crossing the line ahead for 12 of the 17 laps and was gracious in defeat. “It was a great race, I had a lot of fun. I felt confident with the tyres and the track but I knew Scott was there and there was nothing I could do about it. I just kept telling myself to concentrate and not make any mistakes. Towards there was nothing much left of the rear tyre on the left. Scotty came past and I got him back but the he did it again and just got too far ahead. Still a great race and another one tomorrow.” Hanika claimed his 4th 3rd place of the season so far and though 6th in the title chase behind Marcos Ramirez and Ivo Lopes has closed both on them and the leaders. “That was a fun race, I had a good feeling but just not good enough to go with Willi and Scott. I just rode on my own and made sure not to make any mistakes.” Oettl was frustrated to lose a place to Ramirez at the end. “It was the last corner, he just squeezed past, now it’s a 10 point gap to Florian so I’ll have to do something about that tomorrow.” Alt said that the result could have been better also. “I didn’t make a good start, I think I was down in 20th in the 1st sector so to come back from there wasn’t too bad. In another lap I would have caught him for 4th,” claimed Alt, smiling broadly and talking directly to Trautmann. “That’s it, always just one more lap,” joked Trautmann back. “I had a good race, I enjoyed it and went as hard as I could, I was watching the board towards the end and making sure that I kept 4th.” Pole man Niccolo Castellini was battling for the lead from the start but after a couple of slides the 13 year old Italian crashed out on lap 6. Of course he has a 2nd chance on Sunday when again he sits on pole position. Race 2 begins at 15.50 CET and can be seen on www.redbull.tv and on TV stations around the world, the show starting 10 minutes earlier.