FIM MotoGP World Championship Sachsenring, Germany July 16, 2010 Free Practice One Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (Honda), 1:22.521 2. Casey STONER, Australia (Ducati), 1:22.795 3. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (Ducati), 1:22.983 4. Ben SPIES, USA (Yamaha), 1:23.189 5. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (Honda), 1:23.204 6. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (Yamaha), 1:23.224 7. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (Yamaha), 1:23.244 8. Randy DE PUNIET, France (Honda), 1:23.260 9. Marco MELANDRI, Italy (Honda), 1:23.290 10. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (Honda), 1:23.400 11. Mika KALLIO, Finland (Ducati), 1:23.422 12. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (Ducati), 1:23.430 13. Colin EDWARDS, USA (Yamaha), 1:23.440 14. Loris CAPIROSSI, Italy (Suzuki), 1:23.589 15. Hector BARBERA, Spain (Ducati), 1:23.599 16. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (Suzuki), 1:24.020 17. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (Honda), 1:24.101 More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Pedrosa tops timesheets on extra hard Bridgestone slicks Round 8: German GP Free Practice Sachsenring, Friday 16 July 2010 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Hard, Extra Hard. Rear: Hard, Extra Hard (asymmetric) As the track temperature reached 52 degrees Celsius at Sachsenring, Dani Pedrosa set the pace in free practice one using Bridgestone’s extra hard compound slicks front and rear. The demands of the East German circuit, coupled with its very abrasive tarmac, mean that it is only the second time this season that the extra hard compound slicks have been used. The Repsol Honda rider’s fastest lap after the first hour of running this weekend was already within 0.4seconds of his own lap record set last year. Second fastest was Casey Stoner, also using the harder option front and rear Bridgestone slicks, just ahead of his Ducati teammate Nicky Hayden whose best lap came using the harder front but the softer rear slick tyre. Sachsenring newcomer Ben Spies finished fourth after just his first hour of running at the circuit, at the front of a very close group of six riders; the gap separating Spies to Marco Melandri in ninth was just 0.1 seconds. Valentino Rossi was back in action for the Fiat Yamaha Team today for the first time since being sidelined with injury at Mugello. The Italian’s fastest lap came using Bridgestone’s softer slicks and on his last lap of the session, in which he completed just one lap short of race distance, and was just 0.7seconds adrift from Pedrosa. Tohru Ubukata Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “Sachsenring is an incredibly abrasive circuit, and at the beginning of the session the track was a little dirty so this contributed to riders experiencing slight graining of the front tyre, but in the second half of the session the track cleaned and this stopped. Still though Valentino only used one softer front and rear tyre for the whole session and his best time came after 29 laps, indicating good durability and that this graining didn’t affect performance. “The track conditions at the end of the session were good and already the times at the front are very fast, close to the lap record, so I am happy. Almost all riders used both tyre options during the session, indicating that both are working well. Casey set his best time on the harder rear whereas Nicky set his best on the softer rear, indicating the good overlap in performance of both slick tyre options here in Germany.” Top ten from free practice (Friday 13:55 14:55 GMT+2) Pos Rider Team Practice Time Gap Tyres 1 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1m22.521s Bridgestone slicks 2 Casey Stoner Ducati Team 1m22.795s +0.274s Bridgestone slicks 3 Nicky Hayden Ducati Team 1m22.983s +0.462s Bridgestone slicks 4 Ben Spies Monster Yamaha Tech3 1m23.189s +0.668s Bridgestone slicks 5 Marco Simoncelli San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m23.204s +0.683s Bridgestone slicks 6 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 1m23.224s +0.703s Bridgestone slicks 7 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m23.244s +0.723s Bridgestone slicks 8 Randy de Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP 1m23.260s +0.739s Bridgestone slicks 9 Marco Melandri San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m23.290s +0.769s Bridgestone slicks 10 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 1m23.400s +0.879s Bridgestone slicks Weather: Dry. Ambient 32-33°C; Track 51-52°C (Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Rizla Suzuki racer Loris Capirossi finished the first day of practice for the German Grand Prix within touching distance of the front group at a scorching Sachsenring today. Capirossi (1’23.589, 26 laps) was only six tenths-of-a-second from a provisional front row start today, despite only recording 14th place on the classification. His performance through the first and fourth sectors of the circuit saw the Italian record the fifth and second quickest times respectively, and if Capirossi can improve in the middle sections of the 3,671m circuit tomorrow he should be close to the leading group come race day. Álvaro Bautista (P16, 1’24.020, 30 laps) tried both his Rizla Suzuki GSV-Rs with different settings during today’s test to give him the right direction for the rest of the weekend. He certainly favoured one over the other at this tight, twisty and very demanding track and will be looking to make the correct improvements to that set-up tomorrow, as he aims to continue with the strong form he showed at the last race. Today’s practice was held in very warm conditions with bright sunshine raising air temperatures to 36ºC and ground temperatures to 55ºC. Dani Pedrosa recorded the fastest time of the day on his factory Honda. Rizla Suzuki has one practice session tomorrow morning, with qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 30-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT). Loris Capirossi: “Our position today is not as bad as our place on the time-sheet. 14th is no good, but with an extra few tenths we would be at the front because everybody is so close here. We tried to make some changes to the bike it is basically the same as the Barcelona setting so during the session we tried to make many stops to change things and see how they would work. I think in the end we have some idea for something to try to improve the front and help us when we enter the corners. On the faster corners – and the one we go in without the front brake – we are struggling a little bit for feeling, so for tomorrow we have an idea to fix that. I’ve already spoken with Stuart and I’m really positive because the bike feels good on this track.” Álvaro Bautista: “We did some tests with the two bikes set-up very differently today. We tried one similar to the bike at Barcelona and another with some different engine characteristics. I preferred one because it was easier to enter the corners. I felt the front was a bit difficult today as I could feel every bump and I was not able to enter how I wanted to, so we need to work on that. We improved during the session, but at the finish I tried the hard rear tyre and I couldn’t get the grip I wanted and I didn’t have enough time to go back to the softer compound. For tomorrow we must work a little bit more and I feel that I can push myself more. We have a good base setting and we just need to get a few more reference points around here and we’ll improve a lot. We will work mostly with one bike tomorrow and not make too many changes, but the changes we do make we must make sure they are the right ones.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “The positions don’t reflect it, but the session went quite well and the base package is not too far away. Loris needs a half-second to be third or fourth, it’s incredibly close and if we can improve the bike through the long corners in the second sector then the lap-times will come a lot more easily for both the guys. We hope the weather holds – and the threatened rain doesn’t appear and that we can build on today’s potential.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Ben Spies stuns at scorching hot Sachsenring Ben Spies powered his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 m achine to a magnificent fourth place on the MotoGP practice timesheets at a scorching hot Sachsenring circuit in Germany this afternoon. The Texan once again demonstrated his prowess at learning new tracks in ultra-quick time with a best lap of 1.23.189 securing him the fourth quickest time. The Sachsenring is the sixth track out of the first eight races that Spies has had to learn from scratch and the reigning World Superbike champion spent most of the session learning the tight and twisty layout using a hard compound Bridgestone rear tyre. But once he switched to the softer option he is likely to select for Sunday’s 30-lap race as track temperature hit a sizzling 55 degrees, he was immediately able to surge up the leaderboard and catapult himself into contention for a top five. Just five minutes remained when Spies clocked his best time and it was only a late attack from fellow American Nicky Hayden that denied the 25-year-old a stunning top three position. Colin Edwards started round eight of the 2010 MotoGP world championship opting to run a radically different set-up on his YZR-M1 machine. The experienced Texan’s new dire ction saw his crew move more weight to the rear of his bike, while Edwards also modified his own style to change his body position to help turning performance. Edwards was immediately able to ride at a comfortable and consistently fast pace with the revised setting and found himself in third place at one stage in a closely fought session. Edwards declared himself satisfied with the outcome of the changes and he’s confident with more time to fine-tune the new set-up that he has the potential to be much higher up the timesheets during tomorrow’s qualifying session. He finished with the 13th best time after posting a 1.23.440, but was less than three-tenths away from Spies in fourth. Ben Spies 4th 1.23.189 34 laps “I’m really happy to be so high up after the first session and I think I figured out this track pretty quickly. It is good to start the weekend in the top five and that gives us a platform to build on. This circuit is pretty tight and twisty and there are a lot of left-hand corners but I like it because there is quite a lot of elevation that makes it fun. It felt like being out on a dirt track bike and I see Nicky is right up there too. If the weather isn’t as good tomorrow I’m really glad that I got going today and was a ble to get a feel for the track but also put in some fast lap times. I went out on the hard tyre, which I don’t think I’m going to race on, just to learn the track and when I put the softer tyre on I was able to go quite a bit faster. There are a couple of places where I can improve like the left-handers before the fast right downhill section but it was a decent start. I’m pretty sure already that I’ll race the soft tyre. I’m sure I can do the times on the hard tyre but we’ll see what the conditions are like. It’s a positive start and that’s all I can ask for.” Colin Edwards 13th 1.23.440 31 laps “The nature of this track means the times are always close and I’m not e ven a second off the best time but I’m down in 13th. I’m only around three-tenths behind Ben but he’s nine places further up than me. I’ve completely changed the setting of the bike here and that’s meant putting way more weight on the rear than I’ve ever done. My riding style is typically all over the front-end but with the results not being what I’ve wanted or expected so far this season, it was time to change something. So I’ve just got to trust the front and work on the rear. I’m putting more of my body weight on the rear and with the setting of the bike, we’ve shifted a lot of weight back on the rear and it works really good so far and it feels easier to make the lap time. I ran the soft tyre for most of the session and used the hard one at the end just to get some information. I did my fastest time on the hard tyre but I’d say I’ll race the soft one. There is not a lot of difference in performance between the two and I did my best time on the hard one at t he end when I was feeling more comfortable and used to the new setting. But I think with the softer tyre I can definitely go faster.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing Team: BOTH PRAMAC RACING TEAM RIDERS NEAR THE TOP TEN IN THE FIRST FREE PRACTISE OF ENI GERMAN GRAND PRIX. An above average temperature today has accompanied the first free practice of the eni Grand Prix of Germany that will take place Sunday on Sachsenring’s circuit. The thermometer has exceeded 36 degrees, unusual temperature for the German climate. Pramac Racing Team riders, Mika Kallio and Aleix Espargarò, have a good start to approach the race weekend, finishing in eleventh and in twelfth position respectively with less than a second gap behind the first position rider, Dani Pedrosa. Thanks to the technical and to the information given by the riders there were made some improvements on the bike. This had allowed both riders to reduce their lap times and reduce the gap from the fastest riders. Good feeling for the tomorrow’s qualifying where both riders will aim to gain a prominent place on the starting grid of the eni German Grand Prix. Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical Director “During the free practice we have worked to solve some problems encountered during the last race in Barcelona. In particular on Aleix bike we have identified some changes to allow him to have more grip on the front wheel. Too bad he had failed to take advantage in his final exit from the pits. We’re still very happy with the pace that he had today, he had turned almost constantly under 1’23. Regarding Mika’s bike, we had worked intensely on the suspensions impact to allow him to have a stiffer bike for the corners entry. The distance accused from the firsts gives me good hope for the second free practice and for tomorrow’s qualifying session where we will push to allow both riders to gain a good position.” Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing Team – 11th best time in 1’23 .422 “We have partially solved the problem we had on Barcelona’s track during the last Grand Prix. We have worked on the suspension to let my bike have more rigidity in the corners entry. We are very close to the top of the standings. Tomorrow I will give my best to achieve a good position on the starting grid.” Aleix Espargarò – Pramac Racing Team – 12th best time in 1’23 .430 “Unfortunately I was unable to repeat the good results of the last Grand Prix, where during the first free practice I was always very fast. As in Barcelona we had a little grip problem on the front wheel, but thanks to my engineers we have identified some changes to the settings of the bike to make it more stable. The gap from the others is still very small and this gives me good feeling for tomorrow’s qualifying session.” More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: HARD-WORKING GERMAN GP OPENING DAY FOR DE PUNIET AND HIS CREW Sachsenring, 16 July: The 800cc premier class riders hit Germany this week end for the eight round of the season at the Sachsenring race track and the opening day of free practice for Sunday’s Deutschland 30-lap Grand Prix was conducted with sweltering conditions as the air temperature rose up to 36 degrees. Thanks to his stunning performances in the last three rounds of the season, HRC rewarded LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy de Puniet’s brilliant commitment with upgraded chassis parts in Catalunya and a new electronic software that the Frenchman has tested today in the first 60-minute free session at the 3.671 km race track. The 29-year-old clocked his fastest lap time of 1’23.260 (8th overall) chasing the correct set-up of his RC212V for tomorrow’s qualifying session. De Puniet 8th 1’23.260 De Puniet: “Well”¦ it was a hard-working day for us because HRC gave us a new electronic software to test. First of all we have decided to go for a long run on our base bike and after that we started working on the new software. Of course it takes time to adjust it following my preferences about engine brake and all that so we had some little issues about engine mapping. We lost some valuable laps as we stopped at the garage but it was a positive afternoon and we gathered important data to fix the bike. Unfortunately we are expecting rain for tomorrow so this was probably our only chance to set the bike in the dry”. More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER AND HAYDEN ON PACE AT SUNNY SACHSENRING Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden battled hard to overcome the intense heat and tortuously tight layout of the Sachsenring circuit today, setting the second and third fastest times in the opening free practice for the German Grand Prix. After visiting three fast and flowing circuits in the last three rounds the pair worked hard to adapt the set-up of their machines to the slower circuit and both riders made their most significant progress on their final outing. Stoner put a string of three sub-1’23 laps together to challenge for top spot, only losing out to the overall fastest time in T4, where he will look to improve tomorrow. Hayden, meanwhile, put the best aspects of the base set-up of his two machines together for a final run that saw him improve by 0.8 seconds and charge up to third place. “CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 2nd (1’22.795) “In general the bike felt pretty good for most of the session today but we need to make a few improvements. As usual we seem to have one part of the bike working very well at the start and then when we try to improve in other areas we make the good part worse and struggle for a compromise. We tried both sets of tyres today the harder compound and the softer and did our fastest time on the hardest but without really finding out which is the more suitable for the race. The softer front was working well but we had some issues when we switched to the harder one, in particular it was wanting to tuck at the bottom of the hill, so that’s another area we need to improve. In general, like I say, we’re pretty happy with the bike – it’s working well but we have work to do if we’re going to get to where we want to be.” NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Marlboro Team) 3rd (1’22.983) “All in all not a bad first day for us. It was really important to get as much information as we could today, to try all the tyres and a couple of different set-ups because it looks like there’s a good chance of rain tomorrow. We started out struggling quite a bit – right in the beginning it wasn’t too good but I switched bikes and immediately got a better feeling. Actually one bike was better on the front, one bike was better on the rear so it was a case of finding a compromise. There are a couple of parts on the track where I am quite fast but a few sections where I’m losing a lot and every tenth counts around here I mean, a lot of tracks you look for tenths but around here literally half a tenth can make a big difference. But it’s a cool track, I like it, that fast corner out the back is a lot of fun. We’ll just try to keep rolling.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: LORENZO SIXTH ON DAY ONE IN SACHSENRING; ROSSI MAKES STRONG RETURN Jorge Lorenzo finished sixth in the opening German practice session today, slightly struggling to find front end grip at the twisty Sachsenring track. Valentino Rossi meanwhile made an unexpectedly strong return to action after his six-week injury break, finishing just 0.020 off his Fiat Yamaha team-mate in seventh. Lorenzo has won three races in a row at high-speed tracks but the conflicting nature of the Sachsenring landed him in difficulties today as he lacked confidence in the front end of his M1 and lost time in the slower corners. The Mallorcan is hopeful that close study of the data and a slight alteration to his riding style will help him improve and he is looking to jump up the order tomorrow. After his early return to action Rossi was fully expected to be taking it gently today but he felt very comf ortable to be back on his M1 and was soon looking like he’d never been away, sitting in the top four for most of the session. He dropped down the order a little at the end but was more than happy to be just 0.723 seconds off Dani Pedrosa’s pace. After the session he applied ice to his leg but he has no more pain than is to be expected and is looking forward to making more improvements tomorrow. Jorge Lorenzo Position: 6th Time: 1’23.224 Laps: 30 “Today wasn’t a good session for me and I didn’t feel so good on the bike. This isn’t one of my favourite tracks and it’s very different to the ones where I’ve won lately, so I think I need to make some changes to the way I’m riding the bike. I was fast at the start but then we didn’t improve from the middle to the end and everyone else did. We have some work to do and our goal is to be competitive by Sunday.” Valentino Rossi Position: 7th Time: 1’23.244 Laps: 29 “I am really happy today, especially because I am a lot more agile on the bike than I was in the tests. I feel good and this track is helping me because a lot of it turns to the left. I am feeling quite confident on the bike and also my shoulder is good and not giving me problems. Now I have some pain in the leg and ankle but it’s not too bad, I was able to do some laps in a row and I was quite fast so things seem okay. Now we will have to wait until tomorrow morning to see how the leg is and whether it has swelled overnight or developed any problems.” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “It wasn’t a great start for us, Jorge is struggling for feel and he can’t turn so well, compared to 2009 here he’s not in such good shape. We need to compare the data and find out the differences, which are only small, but small differences always matter at this track because it’s quite short. Hopefully if we can improve confidence in the front end Jorge will be much quicker, especially on the slow corners of which there are many here.” Davide Brivio Team Manager “Once again Valentino has surprised everyone! After missing four races and not being completely fit this can be considered a very good session. From a team point of view it was like he had never been away, working on the suspension and searching for the best set-up. His physical condition isn’t too bad, a bit more difficult in the right hand corners and okay on the left, but overall it is a lot better than we expected. We’re very happy and now we’ll see where we can get to tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: PEDROSA ON TOP IN FIRST SACHSENRING PRACTICE, DOVIZIOSO TENTH Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa finished on top of the timesheets today in first practice for the German Grand Prix and laid the foundations for a strong weekend at the Sachsenring. The 24-year-old lapped consistently quickly on his RC212V and finished the practice period a significant 0.274s ahead of his nearest rival in a very close session where the top 13 riders were covered by less than one second. Dovizioso was just 0.875s back from his Repsol Honda team-mate, which translated to tenth position due to the closeness of the times. Pedrosa once again displayed his affinity with the tight and technical German track by setting four laps in today’s session that were quicker than any other rider. Tomorrow he will be looking for a repeat of the pole position he secured here in 2006 during his debut MotoGP season. Dovizioso is also confident of improving his pace and position in tomorrow’s two practice periods after losing time at the s tart of this afternoon’s session with an electronic issue. Once that was ironed out, the 24-year-old Italian went steadily quicker and would doubtless have finished higher up the timesheets given equal track time to his rivals. The hot weather from the last race at Barcelona has followed the MotoGP series to Germany, with today’s session taking place in 36 degrees ambient temperature. Forecasts predict the possibility of a thunderstorm for tomorrow, with Sunday’s 30-lap race, starting at 14.00, expected to be dry. DANI PEDROSA 1st 1m 22.521s “It’s great because for the first time this season I’ve got the best time on Friday and this is a very positive step for us. We normally struggle initially, but today we did a very good job in first practice and I’m very happy for this. It’s also a good result because tomorrow it could rain and so it was very important to get the basic set-up fixed on the first day here. I hope we will have one more practice session in the dry tomorrow, but it looks likely that at least one session will be wet. Today we were focused mainly on trying the different Bridgestone tyre compounds available for the race, and we were able to be fast with the soft and also with the hard option. For tomorrow we need to keep working on the suspension and the electronics because I think we can still improve in some parts of the lap.” ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 10th 1m 23.400s +0.879s “Tenth position does not reflect our true potential here and we have the chance to move forward with more work on the set-up and also on the electronics to find the best balance for this track. We had an electronics issue at the beginning of the session so we lost fifteen minutes, and this meant we couldn’t get through all the set-up work that we had planned. If the weather stays like this tomorrow and we can continue testing in dry conditions then I’m very confident about our chances of climbing nearer to the front and qualifying well. Dani’s lap times were really fast today and he is the only one to have such a strong pace. We’ll look to close the gap tomorrow.” TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER “This was a good start to the weekend for Dani and he’s looking in promising shape for the rest of the meeting. He was able to complete consistently fast laps and find a good direction for machine settings and also tyre choice. Andrea lost a little time at the beginning of the session with an electronics issue and so he was playing catch-up for the remainder of this afternoon. He is also working in the right direction, however, and we are confident both riders can qualify well tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: There was great excitement at the commencement of the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland on Friday as the focus at the start of the opening practice session revolved around Valentino Rossi’s return to action after six weeks out with a broken leg. The Italian made his comeback on his Fiat Yamaha M1 and was seventh fastest, in an hour-long session topped by Dani Pedrosa. Setting his time of 1’22.521 on his final lap, having led for the last minutes of the session, Pedrosa was 0.274s faster than Casey Stoner, who placed second on the timesheet as he vied for top spot throughout the session with some consistently fast lap times. Joining the pair in the top three and the final rider under the 1’23″ marker was Stoner’s Ducati Team colleague Nicky Hayden, 0.462 seconds down on Pedrosa thanks to his late effort. Ben Spies took the best part of the session to feel his way around the track and survived a run-off at turn 10 a quarter of the way into the session, but towards the end he posted an impressive time of 1’23.189 to place fourth. Another rookie in the shape of Marco Simoncelli completed the top five on his satellite Honda Gresini machine. In sixth and 0.703s down on Pedrosa was MotoGP World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, timing in with a best effort of 1’23.224, just two-hundredths off Simoncelli. Meanwhile on the other side of the Fiat Yamaha garage, Rossi hobbled his way back onto his bike with the assistance of a single crutch and with hundreds of media men bustling to get the best shots of his first contact with his M1. The nine-times World Champion completed 29 laps in total, and was only 0.02s off his team-mate’s best time. Randy de Puniet overcame a dramatic moment with the front end of his bike early on, controlling his LCR Honda RC212V admirably in the midst of a big wobble to go on and lap eighth fastest. Marco Melandri and Andrea Dovizioso completed the top ten. The MotoGP riders will be back on track on Saturday morning at 9.55am local time for the second practice, ahead of the afternoon qualifying session. Moto2 Simone Corsi was the fastest rider in the first Moto2 practice at Sachsenring, setting a best time of 1’26.306 on his JiR Motobi machine. That placed the Italian 0.218s clear of Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up) who was second. Talmasci had led with his fourth from last lap of the session a 1’26.524 but six minutes before the end Corsi shot up from 16th place and into first with his effort. Alex Baldolini (Caretta Technology Race Dept) completed the top three at just under nine-hundredths behind Talmacsi. Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) had a session which included a fall towards the end, but by then the Spaniard had set his fastest time to place fourth quickest. Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing) went down too, this time towards the start of the session, but returned to set the fifth fastest time of the hour just over half a second off Corsi’s pace. Alex Debón (Aeroport de Castelló-Ajo) was sixth as he avoided falling when running off during the session, with the top ten completed by Sergio Gadea (Tenerife 40 Pons), Roberto Rolfo (Italtrans STR), Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) and Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up). Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Racing), currently second in the overall standings, was 15th. 125cc The 125cc World Championship leader, Marc Márquez’s dominance of the series continued without respite at Sachsenring as the 17 year-old set the fastest lap of the session by some distance with a 1’27.435. That made Márquez the only rider under 1’28″ in the session, and placed him a substantial 0.833s clear at the top of the timesheet. Next up was Tuenti Racing’s Pol Espargaró, who is just a single point behind Márquez in the standings, and the young Catalan rider had a few nervy moments during the session. After 18 minutes he controlled his Derbi machine well in a run-off at turn eight, and towards the end of the session avoided a collision with wildcard rider Marvin Fritz. Nevertheless his intentions of challenging Márquez this weekend were made clear with a time of 1’28.268. Completing an all-Derbi top three was Espargaró’s team-mate Efrén Vázquez (+1.190s on Márquez), with German duo Jonas Folger (Team Ongetta) and Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo) clearly well motivated for their home event as they both timed within a tenth of the second of Vázquez. Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany), Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX) and Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) completed the top eight in the hour-long session. A notable absence from the practice was Bancaja Aspar rider Nico Terol, who is currently third in the Championship. The Spaniard, who suffered a bruised lung and two fractured vertebra in a last-lap crash at Catalunya almost two weeks ago, was given the medical all-clear to ride this weekend but after an uncomfortable Thursday night decided to leave a final decision on whether he will ride until Saturday morning. More, from a press release issued by Dainese: Dainese has made special modifications to Valentino’s suit and boots: today at Sachsenring the first practices Right after the accident happened at Mugello, Valentino started the recovery phase while Dainese started to develop a special technical equipment which could help the Champion from Tavullia go back to his motorbike as soon as possible. Valentino collaborated actively with Dainese’s technicians and his indications were as always very precious. On July 7, during the very first test in Misano, the Doctor tried on the new suit and the modified boots and he approved them from both a protection and comfort point of view. D-Tec technicians (Dainese Technology Center) improved the details in view of the second test in Brno and especially for Valentino’s surprising comeback in Moto GP at Sachsenring. Beginning from Friday’s first practices, Valentino will wear the suit with the D-air® racing system. The modifications on the suit that have been made concerns the bootleg part: the classical shin protector in polypropylene has been substituted by one made in carbon-kevlar and another one has been added to protect the fibula. Valentino asked that this special protection could be integrated in the left leg as well. The bootleg’s circumference has been widened in order to be able to put the new protections and allow an easier insertion of the new boot. The boot in fact has been widened as well to guarantee a better comfort to the injured leg and a further side opening has been added in order to ease the fit. Such a quick reaction to the rider’s requests and the development of an outfit suitable to the situation have been made possible thanks to the team work made by Dainese’s technicians, engineers and doctors who have always studied the ergonomics and movement of man in order to improve the protection systems in the action sports.