Intrigue abounds at Sachsenring MotoGP

After a weekend off, the 2011 MotoGP world title reaches its halfway mark at Sachsenring in Germany this weekend (July 15-17), with Australia’s Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) a 19pt leader over defending champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha).

Stoner has undoubtedly been the class standard bearer in 2011, but there is now an increasing level of intrigue following Lorenzo’s last-start victory at Mugello – which moved him level on GP victories (37) with legendary countryman Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martínez .

Sachsenring remains just one of two circuits on the current calendar where Lorenzo is yet to taste victory in any class, but having finished second for the past two seasons he will be confident of continuing to chip away at Stoner’s hold on the lead of the standings.

Second Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso is yet to finish on the podium at Sachsenring, but is on a run of three straight rostrum results and is looking strong on the RC212V.

His fellow countryman Valentino Rossi is the rider with the most victories at the ‘new’ Sachsenring (the circuit was newly built in 1998) having taken five wins across all classes, four of those in MotoGP.

Last year he made his comeback from injury at Sachsenring, and this weekend the Ducati rider will make his 250th Grand Prix start making him only the sixth rider to reach the milestone.

Like Rossi, his team-mate Nicky Hayden will also continue his search for a second podium of the season, with fellow American Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) aiming to build on the two podiums he has so far achieved this season.

Dani Pedrosa won last year’s Sachsenring race and continues his climb back to full fitness after making his return to action at Mugello following a three-race absence. The Repsol Honda man and his fellow RC212V riders will be hopeful of building on
Honda’s position as the most successful manufacturer at Sachsenring since the introduction of the current four-stroke format in 2002.

The Japanese factory has taken five wins in the past nine years, Yamaha three and Ducati one. Interestingly, three different bikes have won at the track in the past three years -- Ducati with Stoner on board in 2008, Yamaha with Rossi in 2009 and Honda with Pedrosa last year.

Marco Simoncelli continues to await his maiden premier class podium result and a turnaround in race fortunes this season, having started the last six races from the front row but without a top-three result to show for it. His San Carlo Honda Gresini team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama missed last year’s race through injury and is currently struggling with the aftermath of an injury picked up in a crash in practice at Assen.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow experienced mixed fortunes at Mugello, the American placing ninth and the British rookie failing to finish the race. At Sachsenring, Edwards approaches a track at which he has a best finish of fourth (2007) whilst Crutchlow faces another new circuit.

The satellite Ducatis of Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) and Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing) are closely matched, and LCR Honda’s Toni Elías will seek inspiration from a fantastic Moto2 ride at Sachsenring last year that brought him victory. Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) and Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) will both be hopeful of improving on their results from Mugello, while French world Superbike rider Sylvain Guintoli is on standby to replace Loris Capirossi if the Italian is not fit in time to ride this weekend.

As usual, the 125cc and 250cc classes will complete the world championship flavour at Sachsenring, the latter including Queenslander Anthony West, while South Australian Arthur Sissis will again saddle up in the Red Bull Rookies Cup, which he leads after a sensational campaign.

MotoGP qualifying will be live on ONE at 9:30pm Saturday, and racing starts at 6:55pm Sunday.