Did you know…?
– Andrea Dovizioso leads the World Championship standings from Viñales, Rossi and Márquez. It is the first time that a Ducati has led the general classification since 2009.
– Stoner was victorious in the 2008 race, marking the one and only Ducati victory at the German track.
– Dovizioso finished 3rd in an exciting German GP race last year, which started in the rain and ended with the track totally dry. Before the riders came in to change bikes, Andrea led the race, and was the rider who led the most laps in the race.
– Andrea uses a special lever on his left half handlebar to control the rear brake with his thumb. He has been using this special thumb brake since the second part of last year. Danilo Petrucci has also started using this device as well.
– Jorge Lorenzo has raced at Sachsenring 14 times and has never won there. He has also never managed a win in Argentina, Austin or Austria, making it 4 circuits on the calendar where he still lacks a victory.
– Lorenzo has achieved six podiums at the Sachsenring: in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014. He has two pole positions here, which he achieved in 2006 and 2010.
– Lorenzo missed the 2013 race here as a crash in practice bent the plate in his collarbone that had been placed there two weeks earlier.
– Sachsenring is the shortest circuit in the championship at 3671 meters and is the only track under 4 km in length.
– The first time Sachsenring held a World Championship event was in 1961. The circuit continued to hold races uninterruptedly until 1972. At that time, it was an urban layout of which today only the corner onto the front straight remains. In 1998 it returned to the calendar and became a regular destination, replacing emblematic tracks like Nürburgring and Hockenheim.
– Riders usually describe the German circuit as a large kart track due to the many slow and linking corners.
– Turn #11 is one of the most problematic corners in the whole championship, where many crashes occur. This is due to the fact that it is the fastest corner on the circuit, negotiated in 5th gear and at speeds of 200 km/h, just after a steep slope that descends 21 meters (equivalent to 7 floors) over only 250 meters. In addition, it is a right-hand turn that is reached after negotiating a total of seven left-hand turns over the course of 31 seconds, causing the right side of the tire to cool.
– The braking point at the end of the front straight is the strongest on the entire track, where it is approached at speeds of 293 km/h and the riders brake for 5.4 seconds over a length of 259 meters.
