The modern Sachsenring circuit has some fast sections and a lot of corners, especially left-handers, and had seen four previous GP wins for Rossi and three for Pedrosa. Marco Melandri had won three in the support classes, whilst Stoner had won last year’s MotoGP race, in the wet, and Lorenzo had not yet taken a GP victory at this venue. Melandri aside, these guys were still the favourites for 2009.

Not appearing this year was the 2003 winner, Sete Gibernau. The 36-year-old Spanish rider was absent with his Ducati as the Grupo Francisco Hernando team had run into money problems and pulled out of the series. Perhaps a rescue package will be possible, but they were not expecting a return any time soon, if at all. But a 17 rider grid was maintained with the return from injury of Mika Kallio.

Most of the usual suspects were at the front in qualifying, but wet conditions throughout the session meant that several riders crashed and some lost out as a result. Despite crashing into Niccolò Canepa at the turn eight left-hander, Audi-Brucke, Nicky Hayden actually did better than he had so far with the Marlboro Ducati. The 2006 champion would start fourth, just one place behind team-mate Stoner. The Australian was still not 100% healthy, but with a diagnosis now was starting to get there.

Leading the way were the Fiat Yamaha pair, with Rossi this time getting the better of Lorenzo to take pole position. With Ducati three and four, the first two Honda men completed the second row of the grid, but Repsol works riders Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso were not helped by the conditions, and customer riders Alex de Angelis (for Gresini) and Randy de Puniet (for LCR) were in fifth and sixth. Like Nicky, this was a best yet result in 2009 for Alex.

Row three saw Colin Edwards (Monster Tech 3 Yamaha) heading Pedrosa and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki). Kallio had a good comeback with tenth on the Pramac Ducati, in front of Dovizioso and Rizla’s Chris Vermeulen - who was one of those to crash and was not fully fit. P13 went to Marco Melandri with the Hayate Kawasaki, from James Toseland (Tech 3), Canepa (Pramac), Gábor Talmácsi (Scot Honda) and Toní Elías (San Carlo Gresini Honda).

Sunday was dry although dull, but the warm-up session was not without incident for Hayden. The fast right-hand kink at turn eleven is an important corner here, firing over a brow into a downhill straight with an outbraking zone at the next left, the Sachsenkurve. Nicky crashed at turn eleven, although he didn’t seem to be too much the worse for wear.

The start of the race saw Pedrosa make another good getaway, with Rossi maintaining his first position. The first right-hand downhill loop is the Coca Cola Curve, and the braking zone here saw some of the jostling leaders run wide, so that Pedrosa advanced to second place, from de Puniet and Stoner, with Lorenzo and Hayden losing out. Third man de Puniet, using a harder compound choice of rear Bridgestone tyre, did not get too far. The first lap saw him suffer a rear wheel slide, with the tyre gripping at the wrong time to throw him off in a highside crash.

Initially fifth had been de Angelis, but he would lose out to both Lorenzo and Dovizioso. So after the exit of de Puniet the first five were Rossi, Pedrosa, Stoner, Lorenzo and Dovizioso. Behind de Angelis, Edwards moved up on Capirossi, leaving him to battle with Kallio and Hayden. Among the first few, Lorenzo was also using the harder rear, whilst Stoner had gone with the harder front tyre.

Dovizioso was quickest to begin with, and would take fourth from Lorenzo on the inside for the Sachsenkurve. Leader Rossi looked to be stretching an advantage early on, but then Stoner overtook Pedrosa at Sachsenkurve, with Jorge soon to repass Andrea and also tag on as these four moved clear of the rest. Casey dived inside Valentino at Sachsenkurve to take the lead, and soon Jorge was on Dani and could do the same thing for third.

Dovizioso had quickly dropped away, and soon gave up fifth as de Angelis came past across the start-finish line. They were clear of seventh man Edwards, but Andrea would also soon fall away from Alex. As the race moved on, Dovizioso would clearly be seen to be troubled with a worn front tyre. After losing a few more places he would call it a day in the pits, for his third no-score in a row.

Conditions were brightening as half-distance arrived, with Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo still leading, and Pedrosa now a second behind. As Dani regrouped and started to close that margin, the race was on ahead of him. Rossi overtook Stoner on the inside at Sachsenkurve, and two corners later Lorenzo outbraked the Australian on the inside for Coca Cola Curve. An all-Yamaha contest was in prospect again, with gaps to Stoner and then to Pedrosa easing open at this stage.

Stoner produced a new fastest race lap, but by this stage the margin between him and the two leading Yamahas was too great. Pedrosa then improved the mark further, closing in on the Ducati team leader. With five laps left to run, Coca Cola saw Lorenzo take over the lead from Rossi, getting by on the brakes on the inside. Just behind, Dani was powering past Casey for the same corner. Soon enough, Stoner ran wide in Sachsenkurve, seemingly with problems as he now dropped back.

Lorenzo led Rossi by under a second with two laps to go, with Pedrosa in sight but not close enough to challenge. This was the point when Valentino went back in front, again on the inside at turn one. The start of the final lap saw Jorge on the attack at the same place. Rossi went for a more defensive line into the right-hander, so that Lorenzo had to switch his challenge to the outside. He went a bit wide and there was no change of position, but he did not lose ground.

Unlike at Barcelona, Rossi had cleverly kept Lorenzo behind him on the first turn of the last lap. But he was not going to be able to rest at that, as the younger rider continued to harry. Valentino worked to guard against any challenge, and in particular getting a better run out of turn eleven was key to prevent the most likely attempt at Sachsenkurve. Jorge was behind through the final uphill left Quickenburgkurve, but Rossi took victory by 0.09s.

Pedrosa was in a secure third at the finish, but he explained that his pace had varied because of worries about his front tyre. He got it to last somewhat better than did Dovizioso. Stoner was well back in fourth, probably with tyre concerns of his own, whilst de Angelis maintained his excellent fifth place right through to the finish. In 2008 he’d been fourth in the wet German race, and this was a similar performance in different conditions.

There had been plenty of action to secure sixth place. Melandri had moved through to challenge and pass Edwards, before Dovizioso fell away, but the man who had been last on the grid had made even more progress. Elías got past the likes of Capirossi, Toseland, Edwards, Hayden and Kallio. With them both past Dovizioso, Elías was soon in position to challenge Melandri for P6. He took this on the inside at Coca Cola, but was not clear. Marco just failed to get it back when Toní edged him out wide in the final corner.

Capirossi and Kallio both went the wrong way during the race, and it was Hayden that triumphed over Edwards for eighth, although this didn’t really back up his grid slot. Toseland took tenth, followed home by Capirossi, Canepa, Vermeulen, Kallio and Talmácsi, with the Hungarian therefore getting his first MotoGP point as last man running.

Valentino Rossi was rightfully pleased to have outfoxed his rival and team-mate once again, proving a point about how championships are won, and his 101st Grand Prix win (and 75th in the top class) saw another milestone reached. The legendary GP rider Giacomo Agostini stood on the podium 159 times for 500cc and 350cc GPs in the period 1965-77, and Rossi matched that total today. Meanwhile, Jorge Lorenzo fell a few more points behind and Casey Stoner even more so.

Marco Melandri found more pace from his under developed Kawasaki, but one of his former teams had a better day. The Gresini Honda team have not won a race since 2006, but fifth and sixth for Alex de Angelis and Toní Elías was their best joint effort since the end of 2007, when Melandri and Elías were the riders. But who will be with them next year?

It is the summer, of course, so ‘silly season’ rumours were starting to emerge at the Sachsenring. Importantly, it was said that Jorge Lorenzo was demanding a higher salary from Yamaha for 2010. Whilst they no doubt wish to keep the Spaniard, it was also said that they weren’t going to meet these particular demands. If negotiations fail, it is said that his other option is a Telefónica MoviStar Honda ride, with the Spanish sponsor looking to make a return, having parted with the Gresini team at the end of 2005.

It isn’t known whether the Hayate team has a future, but perhaps Melandri will anyway be recalled by Gresini in place of Elías. The Spaniard provided a reminder of his abilities here, but like de Angelis he is also inconsistent. Also rumoured was the possibility of Randy de Puniet being taken on by Tech 3 Yamaha, with presumably James Toseland the rider most vulnerable there. James has his home race to fire him up next time, and will likely expect that he can improve on sixth place for the first time at Donington.

Standings after nine races: Rossi 176; Lorenzo 162; Stoner 148; Pedrosa 108; Edwards 83; Dovizioso and Melandri 69; Vermeulen 64; Capirossi 60; de Puniet 58.
Yamaha 210; Ducati 148; Honda 139; Suzuki 84; Kawasaki 69.

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