MotoGP preview: Sachsenring

What?
The 2014 German Grand Prix
Round 9 of 18 to be held in 13 countries this year

Where?
Sachsenring, 100km west of Dresden

When?
July 11-13

Track records:
MotoGP:
1:21.846 = 161.4 km/h, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2011
Moto2:
1:24.809 = 155.8 km/h, Julian Simon (Kalex) 2013
Moto3:
1:27.183 = 151.5 km/h, Luis Salom (KTM) 2013

Sachsenring podiums in 2013
MotoGP:
Marquez (Honda) • Crutchlow (Yamaha) • Rossi (Yamaha)
Moto2:
Torres (Suter) • Corsi (Speed Up) • Espargaro (Kalex)
Moto3:
Rins (KTM) • Salom (KTM) • Vinales (KTM)

Talking of Sachsenring …
“I had visited the Sachsenring circuit a couple of years before entering the world championship. It was the first place where I participated as a wildcard, so it’s a special track for me. During the race weekend at Assen I felt good in practice, so we hope that at this Grand Prix we can maintain this form and carry it over to the race. It will not be easy, because the Assen and Sachsenring circuits are very different. Assen is much faster and more flowing, while in Germany you have to take care of the tyres.”
Australian Jack Miller has a soft spot for Sachsenring, which was a staple during his German domestic days, as well as being the venue for his highest Moto3 finish – fourth in 2012 – before this year.

Talking points
The pressure’s off for Dani Pedrosa – well as much as it can when Marquez is your teammate. The Spaniard has now recommitted to the factory Honda operation until the end of 2016 – a la Rossi at Yamaha – and he’s the lap record holder at Sachsenring, so the coast is clear to make good in Germany. The extra incentive to perform is simply being back in the game after he was declared unfit to race in 2013 after a crash on Saturday – the same predicament which befell countryman Jorge Lorenzo.

Sachsenring is dominated by left-hand turns, with 12 of them compared to three right-handers. Sounds like a straightforward equation for tyre companies to get their heads around, but there’s a small caveat: the fastest corner is to the right, so tyre performance is absolutely critical.

Marc Marquez’s season continues to parlay into something extraordinary, and he’s already joined Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan, Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo as the only riders to have won eight or more grands prix in a single season. In terms of overall victories, he’s already the 13th most successful rider in grand prix history with 40 wins, and the deflating news for his MotoGP contemporaries is that he’s undefeated at Sachsenring since 2010.

If Spanish riders win all three races at Sachsenring, the country will become only the second after Italy to win 500 world championship grands prix.

Briton Cal Crutchlow’s second place at Sachsenring in 2013 remains his best GP result, but he’s not so confident of a repeat in 2014. “Unfortunately because of the layout and the corners I think we will have a few problems with understeer on this track, but we will see and as always I’ll try my best to be competitive.”

Moto2 hits Sachsenring off the back of a truly memorable race at Assen which saw Australia’s Anthony West winning from 23rd position on the grid to become the 20th different race victor in the category since it began in 2010. West’s win set a new record for the time gap between a rider’s first and second career wins, as well as the longest ever margin between two single victories in any rider’s career.

Jack Miller has more than Moto3 redemption on his mind after crashing at Assen, with Marc VDS Racing recently sending out a communiqué stating that it has a “binding pre-agreement” with the Australian to contest the 2015 and 2016 Moto2 titles. Marc VDS has gone public after reports that Miller may have a MotoGP offer on the table in 2015. “We have a contract with Jack Miller and we are already preparing for his arrival in the team for the 2015 season because, for us, a deal is a deal,” said Marc VDS boss Michael Bartholemy. “If Jack has changed his mind and doesn’t want to ride for us next year then he or his management team need to come and talk to us, rather than simply ignoring our numerous requests for a meeting to clarify the situation. We are not interested in playing games; we just want the situation sorted out expeditiously.”

Can local rider Helmut Bradl kickstart a memorable double for Germany: victory at Sachsenring and then the small matter of a winning the soccer World Cup on Monday?

Keeping Track
Still to celebrate its 21st birthday – that will happen in 2017 – Sachsenring first hosted world championship grand prix racing in 1998. A drastic layout enhancement in 2003 soon followed, but it remains one of the shortest and slowest circuits on the calendar with an average speed of about 160km/h for the top echelon of MotoGP riders. It may have tight corners, but the racing is close on the anti-clockwise layout.

On the Thursday before the race, Bradley Smith will join Stefan Bradl and Andrea Iannone to sample modifications to the kerbs of turns 10 and 11, with a view to installing permanent changes before the MotoGP caravan returns in 2015.