Marc Marquez (Honda) won a somewhat unpredictable race in Germany earlier today. Starting on a wet track, a dry line eventually formed and created a guessing game as to when riders should switch to dry tires. As it turns out, the timing of Marquez and his team was perfect as he switched over to slicks earlier than the other top riders. Eventually, his margin of victory was quite large.
Finishing second today was Cal Crutchlow (Honda), with Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) third. The Yamaha riders, including factory team members Valentino Rossi (8th) and Jorge Lorenzo (15th) did not fare so well today, although Rossi ran at or near the front before changing tires.
Marquez now has a massive points lead in the championship (48 over second-place Jorge Lorenzo). Visit the official MotoGP site for additional details. Here are today’s results:
Sachsenring, Sunday, July 17, 2016
| Pos. | Num. | Rider | Team | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 47’03.239 |
| 2 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda | Honda | +9.857 |
| 3 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | Ducati | +11.613 |
| 4 | 45 | Scott REDDING | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | +11.992 |
| 5 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati Team | Ducati | +22.755 |
| 6 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +25.920 |
| 7 | 43 | Jack MILLER | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | +26.043 |
| 8 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +26.449 |
| 9 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | +26.614 |
| 10 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +31.274 |
| 11 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | Ducati | +41.208 |
| 12 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +42.158 |
| 13 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +1’03.129 |
| 14 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +1’06.091 |
| 15 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +1’17.694 |
| 16 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 1 Lap |
| 17 | 76 | Loris BAZ | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 2 Laps |
| 18 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | Ducati | 3 Laps |
See more of MD’s great photography:
I respectfully request a reply from one of the race brainiacs.
At a given track, what are the fastest rain laps/grooved tire, for all three GP classes:
MotoGP
Moto2
Moto3
If possible, select a track considered slow to moderately technical, thus favoring the slower /lighter classes. I’m curious to what extent the rain alters lap times. What would be really cool is to compare the same times for the same track, but dry w/slicks.
I bet Miller was doing a mental rain dance in his head near mid race
Repeating what others have posted: Honda and MM are in this to win…Yamaha may be inspired to win, but Rossi either suffered a terminal brain fart, or he just doesn’t really care any more.
I wish the MotoGP screen displayed mph for those like me less familiar w/kph. Watching MM’s pole-qualifying lap, seeing his hips a few inches off the pavement @ 120mph…mind bending.
Great race, it was really hard to tell who was going to win this one. Anyone could crash at any time. I was surprised Rossi passed his pits as many times as he did. Not sure if he missed the pit board, or decided to go on his own. I am sure he now wishes he had come in earlier. Crutchlow ran a good race, kept waiting for him to crash, which he never did. As far as the points, yeah Marquez has a good lead, but all it takes is a couple of DNF’s, crashes, etc, and it changes everything!
As a Rossi fan, this feels like a wasted year. His crash in Austin was on him. Mugello should have been a victory, were it not for his motor blowing up. Assen was going to be a win. And now this, which was his fault. Clearly, he should have come in when his pit crew told him to come in.
Strange. He’s been faster than Lorenzo nearly every week, both in practice and the race. He’s qualifying very well. The only guys who have had anything thing close to his consistent speed in qualifying have been Iannone, Marquez, and, occasionally, Vinales and Lorenzo. Iannone and Vinales are never factors on Sunday, though, and more often than not Valentino has been faster than Marquez during the race.
This has truly felt like a season in which he was more than competitive, more than fast enough to beat the other aliens head to head…and he’s still down nine million points.
Sometimes it’s simply not in the cards.
Dovizioso and Lorenzo would probably disagree with your assessment that Iannone is never a factor on Sunday. 😀
lol Jeremy.
VLJ know what you mean, I thought this might be Rossi’s best chance at a tenth….
“Sometimes it’s simply not in the cards “. I say that every year about Dani. This year I don’t even get to say that. This might be his first year ever that he doesn’t get at least ONE win.
There are eight more races in the season and anything can still happen. There are 200 top step points yet to be won and it only takes one bad get off to ruin a season with a broken bone. That could happen to any rider in the field including Markey Marq at the very next race. Jorge could find his mojo and learn to love Michelins. Vale might get 8 races of nothing but good breaks. Suzuki might find 10 horsepower and some traction for Mav. Cal might stop crashing. Dani? Well no, sorry Dani you will still be Dani.
It’s seems Lorenzo is just not happy or confident with the Michelin tires overall. It looks like thats the biggest problem for him.
Spot-on comment IMO.
Well he’d better get over it and adapt like everyone else or his new employers aren’t going to be too happy with him. Michelins aren’t going away for awhile. Haven’t heard many complaints from the others about them lately.
He was great on the Yamaha, particularly on a dry track on the Bridgestones. Dorna changed tire mfg’s, he’s changing bike mfg’s…next year might be more miserable for him than this year. It’s a Spanish, French, Italian conspiracy to keep him from winning bwahaha
Good thing he chose a new helmet that won’t let him down.
Like him or not, that was a brilliant victory.
Rossi’s result shows that this truly is a team sport, despite the rider being probably the most important factor in the ride. Had he taken their advice 3 laps earlier, could have made up a few spots?
Crutchlow is a great talent, but he says he’s 4th fastest every race. Did he really predict his outcome?
Not only did Rossi not come in soon enough even though his pit board was showing “BOX” but they sent him back out with intermediates instead of slicks. That’s why even Miller was able to stay in front of him at the finish. MM was on slicks and timed his change perfectly. Hats off to Honda on this one.
Its only the half season Mark, a lot can still happen. Lorenzo was down early last season and came bk. I’d have to say though, Rossi getting out strategized by Marquez- didn’t see that coming..
This, exactly this. Where is that age & experience?
Lorenzo came back from 23 points down last year I believe. Right now he is 48 points down and Rossi 59. Anything CAN happen, but that’s an awfully big hill to climb. I think Rossi was down nearly 50 points in 06 and came back to lead it going into the last race but lost it again when he crashed at Valencia handing the title to Hayden.
It’s an especially big hill to climb when Marquez is the one on top of it.
lol no kidding. The hardest kid to knock off the heap, because he is good in all conditions. Plus he has gotten smarter with age, knowing when to push it and when not to push it.
I told my wife yesterday before the race Lorenzo hates the rain, Marquez tolerates the rain and Rossi likes the rain. Rossi would have won yesterday had he and his team played it smarter. At the very least he would have gained valuable points on Lorenzo. IMO the Yamaha team is now fighting amongst each other for second in the Championship.
Sachsenring= Honda track. I’m not certain which bike Austria favors next month, but there are a host of tracks left that JLO’s Yammy does well on. I’m not convinced Honda has improved the bike, just had some fortuitous luck…
If by “fortuitous luck” you mean having Marc Marquez as a rider, then I agree. I also agree that Honda hasn’t really improved the bike much. You can tell by watching both Marquez and Dani that the bike is pretty tough to keep in check.
On this track, when dry, for the last seven years prior to today’s race, MM is unbeaten. (A wet track introduces a wild card.)
Yes, the track was wet at the race start, preferring grooved tread over slicks, but the weather was dry. The the longer the race progressed, the drier would be the “race line,” and the closer was the moment mandating a bike switch w/slicks.
Rossi and Yamaha knew the above unequivocal mathematical formula. They all knew, or should have, that their only chance to beat MM was to switch to slicks prior to MM, not latter.
MM ran into the gravel, skillfully kept his bike upright, and re-entered the track, about 20 seconds behind his former position (4th or 5th at that time).
Shortly thereafter, MM swaps his bike for slicks, and immediately runs 7 second quicker laps than the slugs on grooved rain tires. Being only about 50 seconds behind the leaders, with 13 laps left to go, MM and Honda sealed this the moment MM decided to swap bikes.
Rossi comes in and swaps bikes 4-5 laps after MM. It was as if Rossi and Yamaha conspired to give this race to MM.
If Rossi had swapped bikes one or two laps prior to MM, he might have had a chance. Unbelievably dumb.
Hope you enjoy MM winning Championships, as I learn to do. Barring unforeseen circumstance, I don’t see much competition for him for the next 5-10 years, maybe even longer.
Till the last few laps, it was a good race, fun to watch.
MM was brilliant. Running off the track and winning!? I think it must be said as well that Valentino does not feel 21 years old anymore. – Marc is an alien. I tweeted him and asked him what planet he is from. Nicky would not pass people and take the risks that Marc does. That makes a difference. In this case, just riding the dry line was brilliant and truly other worldly.
Lorenzo crashed 3 times during qualifying and apparently had no confidence in the race, starting in 11th place on the grid and ending in 15th place in the race results. Did he even get 1 point?
Yes, 15 th place pays 1 point
Rossi’s pit crew was frustrated that he ignored their pit board and stayed out on rain tires. You can tell Rossi, but you can’t tell him much. Gee, imagine that.
On the other hand, MM listened to his guys and came into the pits for slick tires. It’s almost like pit crews have information on how the track is drying, temperatures, other riders times, you know, things a rider doesn’t have. Hmmmm, just wondering.
Jlo has a serious case of panties in a bunch. I saw his bike after the race and his seat has pinch marks on it so big, it looks like a little mountain range. Poor little fella.
If every race were a rain race, I bet Lorenzo would give up the sport.
man these rain/wet races are so hard on the riders..should I go in and switch, should I stay out. Marquez was masterful at it today. Valentino blundered badly. Lorenzo has no idea how to ride on a wet track. Crutchlow looked very good for a change, as did Redding. Miller was looking good but I guess the race was too long and his intermediates short on rubber.I repeat, Lorenzo has no idea how to ride on a wet track. I think it’s in his head at this point.
Unless something strange happens it will be Marquez’s year. Val sure blew it today staying out about 3 laps too long. Even his pit crew were throwing up their arms in desperation.
Lorenzo has won many wet races. Check facts first, my friend.
maybe so, but not recently, and he sure hasn’t ridden like he’s won in the rain before lately.Certainly not known as a wet weather racer.
I like Lorenzo, but ever since he had a few boo boo’s from crashing in the rain, he absolutely is SLOW and takes NO chances.
Yes, poor Lorenzo seems to have completely lost his mojo. It’s almost as if he isn’t even trying.
Or asif, since announcing his departure from yamaha, that they’re not exactly holding up their side of the bargain.
I find that unlikely since Yamaha would ultimately want to claim the championship and the team members themselves on his crew have their own reputation to maintain.
JL has trouble (wet or dry) whenever the tires aren’t just right for his style, but something else is making his performance worse than usual. I wonder what Ducati is thinking while watching that.