The racing weekend that was - Wk 28

In MotoGP, at Sachsenring, Germany:
The sensational Marc Marquez, who's already won 8 consecutive races this year, wins his 9th in truly spectacular fashion. He was among 14 riders who decided at the conclusion of the formation lap to pit to change back to a dry setup as the track was beginning to dry up, after a rain shower passed over Saxony, Germany, before the race.

However this meant that these 14 riders were all bunched up at the line at the end of pit lane waiting to join the field as they raced by at the start of the race. Tense moments followed as 14 bikes all bunched up left the line in a drag race, with some shoving one another, as they raced to the Coca Cola Curve.

With Dani Pedrosa closely following him, Marc Marquez proceeded to give a master class in overtaking, slashing through the field and catching up to Stefan Bradl in P1 in just 6 laps. Bradl was stuck with wet settings on a dry bike and could only watch the duo as they blew by him. With some 10 laps to go, Pedrosa's pace quickly deteriorated and Marquez sailed to an easy win with a 1.466 second margin victory.

Jorge Lorenzo was visibly scared of the wet/dry conditions while on a dry setup, something similar to the Assen race, but he quickly shrugged it off and put on a good performance, by first overtaking his team-mate Valentino Rossi and then Bradl to eventually settle for 3rd.

During the closing stages of the race, Ducatti rider Cal Crutchlow passed his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso at the Waterfall corner in a battle for 7th. This is the same corner he had a spill in during qualifying, and just as the spectators thought they witnessed a nice pass, rookie Pol Espargaro overtook them both!

Race results (top 5):
1. Marc Marquez, Spain, Repsol Honda
2. Dani Pedrosa, Spain, Repsol Honda
3. Jorge Lorenzo, Spain, Movistar Yamaha
4. Valentino Rossi, Italy, Movistar Yamaha
5. Andrea Iannone, Italy, Pramac Racing

To watch a "best action" of the race, please click here. For the start from the pits section, forward to the 1 minute mark. The next race is August 10th at Indianapolis, USA.

In a separate incident, during a Moto3 race ran in the same German GP race, Bryan Schouten and Scott Deroue had a brawl in front of hundreds of spectators (see pict on the right). The Dutch duo exchanged punches after they crashed out of the race and had to be pulled apart by medical staff. We haven't seen this much emotion from the Dutch since Maxima stole the King's heart!

Thanks for reading.

Update on the brawl: even though Bryan Schouten made a formal apology for what transpired after their fall, I have not been able to see the brawl from any footage up to now.

Source: Crash.net, MotoGP, Wikipedia, the Guardian,
Photo credit: MotoGP, Thomas Peter/Reuters