Our man on the inside Toby Moody gives us a personal insight into the fun and games behind the scenes at the Sachsenring last weekend.
Pedrosa gets shirty
Dani Pedrosa had the biggest smile on his face after winning the German MotoGP at the Sachsenring after an accident-interrupted race that saw the 30-lapper stopped after nine laps following a big crash with Randy de Puniet, Aleix Espargaró and Álvaro Bautista. (De Puniet's bike was left burning in the middle of the racetrack after fuel spilt out, but more seriously the Frenchman was clipped by an unsighted Mike Kallio, his Ducati breaking Randy's lower leg.) Pedrosa wore a Spanish World Cup football shirt on the podium, echoing one of the most patriotic Spanish journalists in the press office who had a scarf draped out over his table all weekend.
Toby Moody
Cool customer
Marc Márquez was asked after his domination of 125cc qualifying why he was so fast. Even the gentle-natured 17-year-old might have been prompted to proffer a 'Well, I'm faster than the rest of them' answer, but he cleverly and diplomatically said, "If people around you are cool, then everything is OK." He was cool as he went on to win his fifth win on the trot. Yet more records are set by the sensation of 2010.
Hiro’s back story
Interwetten Honda’s Hiroshi Aoyama is progressing with his back injury after crashing at Silverstone. He now has a body brace that he uses to enable him to move around his flat in Barcelona, but in a couple of weeks he may be fit enough to take to the swimming pool to try and aid his healing fractured vertebrae. Get well soon, Hiro.
Toby Moody
Scrap value
Meanwhile, Hiro’s temporary replacement Alex de Angelis’s crash on Saturday afternoon didn't look that big as he leapt to his feet, but the only three things that got salvaged in the Interwetten garage were the frame, the engine and the swingarm. The damaged bodywork was unceremoniously wrapped up at the back of the garage in a pile of €25,000 carbon-fibre scrap. Ouch.
The look of the Irish
Tim O'Glock, the Irish F1 driver, made a visit to the grid before the MotoGP race to see his countryman Mark O'Melandri. Er, no, that's Timo Glock and Marco Melandri, the German Virgin F1 driver and Italian Gresini Honda rider. It's an old joke, but it needed an airing.
Boiling point
The Sachsenring paddock is split in two, meaning that the large hospitality units are on the other side of the track from the pits – quite a way to walk, and through a tunnel at that, to get refreshments, drinks and a meal. However, Repsol Honda solved the problem in the simplest of ways by just setting up a kettle for tea, coffee or pot noodles in one of the lockers on the side of the trucks. And it doesn't mean that you’ll have it made for you just because you're a MotoGP rider… Here is Andrea Dovizioso making a coffee before morning warm-up on Sunday. It must have worked, because he was fastest.
Toby Moody
The sound of the Hoff
Walking to the commentary booth, I was called into another booth by the German Sport 1 duo of Eddie Mielke and former GP racer Alex 'The Hoff' Hoffman to do their soundcheck. Eddie was already en route to losing his voice before the racing had even started and was sporting his own Alex Hoffman fan club T shirt. "I had to pay €25 for it, too. He didn't even give me it!"
Flour power
The odd ant found its way into the booth on Friday, but by Saturday there were a few too many for comfort. The little critters were somehow getting in, but I just could not discover from where. In the end, I asked around a few places for help, with my friends at Ducati hospitality coming up trumps with some 'Ant Killer' in a botched-up container. I dusted the stuff over the place and, sure enough, they disappeared… only for me to discover on Sunday night that it wasn't actually insecticide but ordinary, boring, breadmaking flour instead. They'd played a joke on me, but amazingly we may have hit upon a new ant-buster!
Watching brief
1993 125cc World Champion Dirk Raudies made a visit to the paddock on Saturday, then handed out the pole position-winning watches from Tissot. As a privateer winner, Dirk always has his eye on the coffers, noting exactly how far the trip was from his home in Schwabia to the Sachsenring circuit. But the moustachioed German kept up in the stakes of being a true 125cc rider in that he is still smaller than Marc Márquez – cue tittering from the back of the conference from journalists.
Toby Moody
“I’m with Vale”
Former 500cc, British Superbike and World SBK racer James Haydon joined me in the box for the weekend, but with late flights we arrived to the track too late to collect his pass from the accreditation centre. We managed to get into the official press conference room where Valentino Rossi was still cooped up with the journalists, and we managed to bypass four security guards before being side-by-side with Rossi. However, cover was soon blown as the MotoGP press officer twigged James was not 'mit pass'. The sweet talking worked, though, and he wasn't thrown out!
Ducati in the line of fire
Nicky Hayden said on Friday that if Valentino Rossi joined Ducati – and let’s be honest, it certainly looks like he is – then, "He's goin' to put a lot of pressure on Ducati. If they don't win, then they're gonna burn the factory down!" No pressure for the Ducati lot, then…
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