Philipp Oettl put on a superb display to win the first Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race of the weekend at the Sachsenring. The 15 year old German got the best of a 12 man battle for the lead heading South African 15 year old Brad Binder and Dutch 15 year old Scott Deroue across the line. Cup leader Arthur Sissis had a disastrous race, the 16 year old Australian suffering machine problems just before the start. The bike was swapped in the pit lane for a spare and he started half a lap behind. He completed the 19 lap race but the bike was not set up for him and he never got close to a points scoring position. His arch rival in the Cup chase, 14 year old Italian Lorenzo Baldassarri, was in that 12 man battle for the lead but it had dwindled to an 8 man struggle when Xavi Pinsach crashed in front of him and split the group further. That left Baldassarri with an 8 second deficit to the 5 man group who then fought all the way to the line. The Italian picked up 10 points for 6th and closed the points deficit to Sissis to just 7 with 4 races remaining. “That was such a fun race,” said the victorious Oettl. “The start was OK and I took 2nd going into the first corner. Then it was a really hard fight with a big group of riders all the way. It was tough because the grip was not that great and the bike was sliding around a lot. When it came to the last lap I just went as hard as I could in the hope of opening up a little bit of a gap before the last corners,’ concluded Oettl who set the fastest lap of the race on that final circuit and crossed the line just 3 10ths of a second ahead of Binder. For Binder it was his 3rd 2nd place at the Sachsenring in a row after his fine finishes last year. “A bit frustrating and I certainly want to change that tomorrow but it was a great race and I am so happy to be back on the podium. I didn’t like riding in the rain and we had too many wet races this year so it is great to be back on a dry track and battling for the lead. It was so intense, Alan Techer and I hit hard, I have a sore shoulder, I certainly didn’t mean to, I think he went right as I flicked left, luckily we got away with it.” That was just one of the close incidents at the head of the field in a drama packed race. No one had a better view than Deroue who was towards the back of the lead group for much of the time. “It was incredible, such a great race, we were touching and bumping, overtaking at every corner. When Florian Alt crashed in front of me I almost hit him. I was having such a great time and towards the end I was feeling quite confident. On the last lap, coming down the hill I saw I could pass Techer for 3rd and I went for it.” Alan Techer had done much of the leading but lost out in the last few laps. “It was great race, a tough race, we were sliding around a lot and when I got overtaken by Scott on the last lap I wanted to get him back through the last corner but I had another big slide and that was it. We might change the bike a bit for tomorrow and I am going to race!!!” Tomas Vavrous was a fine 5th. The 18 year old Czech had been at the front with Techer for much of the race and backed up his great 2nd in Mugello with another good result, erasing some of the early season errors. “It was a lot of fun, I wanted to get on the podium again. But it was a good race just to finish, maybe tomorrow.” The second race of the weekend is on Sunday starting at 15.30 CET and can be seen on television stations around the world and is webcast on www.redbull.tv with the show starting 10 minutes before the race. Race 1 Classification 1. Philipp Oettl (GER) 29 minutes 1.819 seconds 2. Brad Binder (RSA) +0.335 3. Scott Deroue (NED) +0.691 4. Alan Techer (FRA) +0.835 5. Tomas Vavrous (CZE) +0.951 6. Lorenzo Baldassarri (ITA) +9.843 7. Joakim Niemi (FIN) +20.757 8. Kevin Argino (ITA) +20.828 9. Andrea Migno (ITA) +20.840 10. Max Enderlein (GER) +20.934 17. Joe Roberts (USA), +71.163