Ducati Team prepares for Sachsenring challenge The Sachsenring is a unique track: short, narrow and, for the most part, slow and twisty, seemingly little-suited for the power of MotoGP bikes. In reality however, it often plays host to hard-fought, thrilling races. In addition, the atmosphere that surrounds the event is very popular among the world championship riders, who appreciate the passion and enthusiasm of the large crowd that fills the grandstands starting with Friday’s free practice sessions. Valentino Rossi has won at the Sachsenring five times in his career, and he has climbed the podium on four other occasions. Nicky Hayden is also a frequent visitor to the Sachsenring rostrum, having finished third four times. VALENTINO ROSSI, Ducati Team “I like the Sachsenring track. It’s difficult because it’s slow and narrow, but it also has some very fast sections, in addition to big elevation changes. It’s quite different from the tracks at the last two rounds, Silverstone and Assen, so we’ll see where we stand with our bike. Last year we had a difficult weekend in Germany, but of course my goal is always to do better every time we return to any track.” NICKY HAYDEN, Ducati Team “Some people complain about the Sachsenring because it’s so small and tight, but I like it. The lap times are really short, and usually really close. You hardly ever use sixth gear, but it might have the best corner in MotoGP: the fast, blind, downhill Waterfall corner. When you’re bike’s working, it’s a lot of fun, although I’ve come off there, which definitely wasn’t fun! I like counter clockwise tracks, and I’ve been on the pole and on the podium there. Our bike tends to be hard on tyres, which can be a problem at the Sachsenring, but I think we made a little step with that this past weekend that could help us. I’m looking forward to it. We’ll try to have a good race there and see if we can get our best result of the season, to pay the team back for all the hard work.” VITTORIANO GUARESCHI, Team Manager “The Sachsenring is the second-shortest track on the championship calendar, as well as one of the slowest. With its prevalence of left-hand corners, it tends to work that side of the tyre quite hard, so that will be one more thing we’ll have to take into account with our setup. At the moment, we’re working toward being more consistent over race distance, and at Assen, if we exclude the problem that hurt Valentino, we saw some positive signs in that regard, though considerable work still remains.”