Sachsenring Qualifying MotoGP

They are away. You can't keep that guy away, Jorge Lorenzo right in the

hunt. An absolute champion's innings at the crease, bringing it home in

fifth place. Cal Crutchlow moved off the line

really well but he has been shuffled back a bit now. He has got him under

brakes. Marc Marquez is being annihilated high bike number two,

Cal Crutchlow. Crutchlow almost connected him. I am pleased the

Valentino, it is nice to see him back winning. I would have preferred

it to be me! -- pleased for Valentino. Valentino Rossi is on

it. He takes the lead! He is back! He wins the Dutch Grand Prix.

victory after a lot of time gives me a great feeling. I worked a lot, I

never give up. It was a day for heroes or right.

The first victory for Valentino Rossi for the first time in over two

years. A battered and ruse to Marc Marquez. Third place the Cal

Crutchlow and the superhuman run by Lorenzo less than 48 hours after

breaking his collarbone. For Jorge Lorenzo it has been a case of deja

vu. He found himself on a plane back to Barcelona last night again after

another massive crash. It was in turn ten just behind me, very fast.

He lost the rear and came down heavily on his injured shoulder

during free practice after going fastest in the warmup. X-rays

revealed damage to his plate. He needs another operation to replace

it. This time there will be no miracle return, he is out of this

race and possibly the next one at Laguna Seca in a week's time. A real

disappointment for him. A big chance the Dani Pedrosa to extend his

league, -- his lead, but fate turned against him. A cold morning, a few

drops of rain in the air and he lost the rear turning into gate one and

had a massive high side and came down badly on his shoulder. He went

straight for his collarbone. X-rays revealed no fractures but the last

we saw was him being airlifted away for further checks. This is a story

that is developing by the minute here. Give us the latest if you can.

As you say, he was taken to the local hospital. The reason for that

being that he had low blood pressure and concussion and also extensive

damage to his helmet so as a precaution they took him to the

local hospital to have a cat scan. He is back now, he arrived after the

last session was going, he will not be taking part in qualifying. It

looks like a small fracture in the collarbone, that is what the team

have just told me. We will have to wait and see what happens with him

overnight to see if he will be able to participate in the race tomorrow

but meanwhile we know that Jorge Lorenzo will not be participating.

The team manager here. I guess it was too much to ask for a repeat of

Assen. He has had the operation this morning, how does it look for him?

Many questions in one! After Assen, he said in the press conference,

what I did nobody should do again. That was very clear. He had a lot of

pain in Assen and it took a lot of physical and mental strength. I saw

the crash here, and especially bending the plate was a bad

situation. What about in two weeks time? Well, really it is one week.

We will have to wait for his answer. He has just finished his operation,

I think he is still asleep. If he is listening it is the first time we

see each other on television. I hope he is recovering well because that

is the first priority at the moment. We wish him and Pedrosa a speedy

recovery. Absolutely, and it is a long journey

to Laguna Seca. That is in California. A big query mark for

could lead the world championship if everything goes his way today and

tomorrow. Marquez set the fastest practice time. Espargaro was the

second fastest this morning, third overall over the weekend. Stefan

Bradl or so performing well in front of his home crowd. The top ten go

directly into Q2. Dovizioso gets in by virtue of that withdrawal. The

top two will qualify for Q2. Look out for Northern Ireland's Michael

Laverty. He has been impressive on Laverty. He has been impressive on

his first visit to this track. I think we have all been watching him

with keen interest, 17th overall but unfortunately a crash for him this

morning in turn 11, downhill. It has caught a few experienced riders over

the course of the week and it is a bit of a rite of passage for a rocky

to go down there. -- rookie. We saw Casey Stoner go down there about a

week ago. Just about every rider has gone down there. A lot have been at

turn 11. It is the fastest right-hander and they have a lot of

left, seven corners before they get to that. A lot of people are falling

down there unfortunately, and wrecking bikes. I can't imagine how

much money did Cathy have spent this weekend. Yes, that crash by you know

me in particular was bad, it broke the rear swinging arm. -- Andrea

Iannone. It is extraordinarily fast. OK. We have so many crashes to show

you I don't know where to start. This is yet another crash a moment

ago in this last session. On the back of Andrea Iannone's leathers it

says, maniac drivers. That was at turn one. He came in too hot, rear

of the bike got in the air and he went horribly down. The guys are

going to go out there, we have a practice one coming up and the top

two from this go through to qualifying two. Terrific stuff from

the CRT guys, particularly Espargaro. A very powerful display.

They are going faster and faster with that bike in terms of engines

but it is still a bit town on the top speed of the prototype likes,

but Espargaro on a CRT machine, not one of the prototype 's, was the

fastest in two and three. -- prototypes. Valentino Rossi's crew

are doing nothing but power. The only place where you are absolutely

pinned on full throttle will be coming out of the start, in front of

our commentary booth. Before turn 11 it is a run down the hill to the

turn where Casey Stoner went down last year. This circuit always seems

to be a race of attrition and it is last man standing at the moment. It

is a very difficult track, the sort of place that invites accidents,

lots of downhill corners, blind corners as well, where you can't see

where the bike will end up before the corner starts. We had Dani

Pedrosa crashing, Jorge Lorenzo in session two at the start of it

yesterday, Cal Crutchlow had two enormous crashes yesterday, Andrea

Iannone and Dovizioso, Hayden, Laverty. The list goes on and on.

Five of them were up around ten, 11th. I would say about $1 billion

worth of damage. -- $1 million. Yonny Hernandez's team say that they

have stopped him crashing this year. That is by dialling out a lot of the

traction control. There he is, Yonny Hernandez. He feels he is in control

of it, he has the throttle. I hope we are not putting on a

commentator's curse but he feels much better. People tweet me and

say, surely crashing control will not stop you crashing because once

it starts spinning you have so much inertia that the traction control

does not stop you running, but it stops the tire a little bit. It

reduces the spinning through a corner. The rear tyre accelerating

out of any of these corners will be travelling faster than the front

tyre because of the spin. The traction control is designed to stop

the degradation of the rear tyre. snapshot of what is going on, that

is hero, . In terms of your former guard, the fastest in the three

qualifying sessions were Marquez, Espargaro and Rossi. In this

session, the guys from ten onwards, it was the pits CEO, Mikael Pirro.

-- the bridge CEO. It is a particularly nasty track in terms of

catching people out. Yet one of the slowest. That is the nasty bottom

corner, the second of the right-handers. It just flipped him

up. Knocked the wind clean out of up. Knocked the wind clean out of

him. It has been of into the gravel. Why did I mention that? That was not

traction control. That was a front end sliding out. To go through the

list of who did not crash is much shorter this weekend, it is

extraordinary. Another foot rest and handlebar, it should be as good as

new. It is not the fault of the Marshall. Paul Bird is here this

weekend to watch what is going on. He has been doing particularly well

in practice sessions. What can he do now to put him on the best possible

grid position? Claudio Corti has been extremely strong. 10th fastest

outright out of all the teams. change we have got all CRT in this

session. They have all gone through. Helped of course by the fact that

Jorge Lorenzo is not here. Randy De Puniet is a wonderful rider that he

has been thoroughly eclipsed by his team-mate. Alex Espargaro was just

charging so hard, quite extraordinary. They do have the

latest upgrade on those bikes. I am told that they have changed the top

and a fair bit. And that has helped with reliability. They produce more

power. But if you want that upgrade it is about �20,000 per engine.

is not. It is.Andrea Iannone has a dislocated soldier died -- shoulder.

Cordially, De Puniet and Hernandez is how it goes at the moment. It is

rarely a tall order for Hernandez to even get back and try to qualify any

better. There he goes. Trying to go out with his second tire. Just

before lunch he was saying he was not looking forward to turn 11. That

is the infamous 1011 as it drops away. He had no idea what caused the

accident. He was off the throttle. Just really quite peculiar. Hector

Barbera in the pits at the moment getting a change of tyres. Colin

Edwards's team-mate is back in fifth place. It is a very tight circuit.

Randy De Puniet and Claudio Corti would be the ones to go through if

it stopped right now. Michael Laverty, third fastest in this

session at the moment. There he is right now. This is a good lap for

Michael Laverty. A good lap from Randy De Puniet. Just lost it on

that last exit. He is second place but at the moment that would carry

him up into the next practice session as well. Five minutes

remaining. Anyone out there really has no time to come in and put on

new tyres. There is Yonny Hernandez. Back in force now in the session.

There is nowhere to hide now. The guys will trawl through all the data

and show you where you went wrong, a little more front brake pressure, or

whatever. At least in my day you could come in and say that the

throttle had stuck open! That is true! This is a great lap from Randy

De Puniet. He is under a lot of pressure from his team-mate who has

just dominated CRT. It is extraordinary. Looking at the

combined times of the top three sessions, Alex Espargaro is second

fastest in front of Valentino Rossi. What is going on here with demo

judging's -- Danilo Petrucci? are making extraordinary leaps and

bounds in the CRT bikes. They are getting faster and faster. These

guys are going quicker and quicker. All the time they are honing the

chassis. They can run with a softer rear tyre which really does work for

this qualifying, 15 minute modifying sessions. It might not work quite so

well in the race. So at the moment just under three minutes remaining

of this session. These bikes have different compounds available to

them of course. Absolutely. Mr Edwards, going into turn one. I

thought he was going to let the brakes off. He is second-fastest at

the moment. This man will be disappointed with his run.

expected a lot more of him around here. You can see by the faces of

the team, they were expecting a lot more. Leaving the best until last,

maybe. Time for another lap after this. But he will want to try to get

this sorted out and get him through to the next qualifying session.

has gone away! There or thereabouts but not quite close enough. Watch

for the third split. He's starting to drift out. He needs to finish

first or second in this session to graduate to the next one. De Puniet

does not make it. Of course they all have another lap remaining. Michael

Laverty in hot pursuit. These final laps dropping away. 39 seconds

remaining. Michael Laverty's best time of the week so far 23.6. This

is his fastest lap of the weekend he has already put in. He is at the top

of his field. A strong performance from him. This is a good lap from

Randy De Puniet. That could bump him all the way up there. Two of the lab

bikes have been destroyed in the first crack this session. And by

destroyed, you really do mean absolutely trashed. Iannone, that

look the abbey of the two. -- trashed the uglier. That is

frustrating. He does not have the chance to roll the dice. I would

love to know the difference in the setup of the bikes. Randy De Puniet

is no mean rider. He is a full really having a stellar season. Down

in ninth place at the moment. The chequered flag is out. Petrucci and

Corti going into the final qualifying session. The first time

Petrucci has made it through. But he has done a cracking job here today.

23.1. The best time we have seen all weekend was from Mark Marquez.

team applauding him. Where did that come from? I do not know. He has

really persevered. He had a challenging start last year but has

done very well. Just in front of this man, Claudio Corti. Laverty in

six place. Bryan Staring had a nasty crash at the bottom of turn three.

Out on the left at the top you can see that infamous 1011. It is a very

short track. They really got the most out of their real estate. It is

a tiny track that turns back on itself. They fit quite a lot of

mileage into a small piece of tarmac. There are just two places on

the whole circuit where the bike is fully upright. It is extraordinarily

steep. That piece of road was the old Sachsenring. Back in the 1950s

and 1960s. There are big crowds here but they used to get something like

300,000 spectators turning up back in the mid-60s. It was 50 years ago

sadly when the late and great Bill Ivor was killed here at Sachsenring.

Laverty did not have a bad run there. He was not that far off it in

there. He was not that far off it in the end. Michael, that was your best

grid I think. You have never been to a track like this before. You must

be pleased. I am happy with how things have been going this weekend.

I took a setback this morning with that crash. That upset as going into

qualifying but I got a reasonable lap time in the end. It is nice with

the two straight on the circuit, giving our bikes much more of a

fighting chance. I was chuffed with that. We had a tough weekend in

arson and this weekend, it is nice when it works like that. It gives

you a fighting chance. The bike has been working well and hopefully we

can pick up some points tomorrow. You were one of several riders to

crash over the course of the weekend. What is it about 1011?

think with the temperature being lowered it was hard to get the into

the tyres. There are just too right hand tends before that. So getting

the temperature to drop out of the right tyres, there is nothing that

you can do. You are on the ground before you know it. It's kind of

looked me because I had done nothing wrong, there is nothing to change to

avoid it. But the temperature was up there at the end of qualifying so I

was able to push through. It is just one of those corners. One of the

fastest in the calendar and really easy to crash. It was closed between

you so we are looking for a good race tomorrow. Yes, in the

qualifying session it was not my preferred chassis sessions. I am

right up there with the top CRTs. So we will just keep chipping away

tomorrow. This track seems to lend itself to our style. Great

performance by Michael. Let's see what he can do in the race tomorrow.

Coming through to Q2 now. The true Chi makes it for the first time and

Laois Espargaro, we will all be looking to see how he gets on after

coming third. -- Danilo Petrucci makes it for the first time and

Espargaro. Espargaro is a hard charger and his bike is going

quicker and quicker. The interesting factor is that people are saying

that his brother has been signed by Yamaha for next year. But you would

think he was the one who would be snapped up because he is doing a

sterling job, the other guys must be thinking, what on earth is he doing?

He is riding that much harder. He is on top of it, he doesn't crash too

much, he is just riding extremely well. He is getting the best out of

his bike. For those not familiar with VCR to rules, we will review

that. More immediately, the number of crashes we have had over the

weekend. That is Cal Crutchlow, the first one. It is like being in a

tumble dryer. You can see smoke of the low side of his tyre. You can

see him thinking, I don't need this. He will be trying to slow himself

down, trying to get as much contact with the track as he can get.

sliding at about 120 mph. Not really what you want to try at home.

is 120 mph. When the crash seems to be over, he starts to tumble and

tumble, slides about 400 metres down the hill. It is extraordinary and a

miracle more people are not hurt. I was talking to Cal Crutchlow's dad

earlier and he said, he is seriously beaten up. He passed out trying to

get some of the dressings of the wounds because they cause nasty skin

injuries. And he is as tough as they come. He had already beaten himself

up in turn one yesterday. He jumps off there, takes all the skin off

his hands. These guys at half. -- official free practice. Marquez from

Espargaro and Valentino Rossi of Italy. Crutchlow next, bow tester,

Bradley Smith, Nicky Hayden, and Patricio so -- Dovizioso. They will

be riding with the boys who made it through from free practice one. This

is a 15 minute session but only half the field here. Theoretically they

are not supposed to get tangled up and fall over each other but we know

it doesn't work like that. minutes remaining of this session. I

think they will have another three laps, put a new rear tyre on and

have another three laps. There is -- Reece Edwards, there, the PR guy.

They were disappointed because Dani Pedrosa is not going out. He will

start in 12th. It is not guaranteed that he will start tomorrow. If he

is deemed to have had concussion they won't let him start. It is

extraordinarily bad luck. I'm sure Dani Pedrosa was not feeling too

sharp when he saw Lorenzo crash like that, nobody wishes ill on anybody

else but he would have known it was a chance to bag some points, but

then he did the exact same. Who says they don't wish bad on each other? !

Pedrosa was going to go back -- Pedrosa shook his hand and wished

him the best. He would not have thought that he was going to be in

the same situation, being flown off to hospital this morning. Pedrosa

was on 138, Pedrosa was second on 127. If Pedrosa does not turn up

tomorrow and this man wins it, he will lead the championship at the

end. This man, Stefan Bradl, the local German rider, has been

absolutely on it all weekend, his best qualifying last week in Assen.

That is, two weeks ago. A great opportunity for Valentino Rossi, who

delighted the motorbike world by winning for the first time in two

years in Assen. He had not won since 2010, the Sepang circuit. This is

another great opportunity without Lorenzo and with Dani Pedrosa

obviously below par even if he does race tomorrow. When you start

looking down the list of people, Pedrosa leads, second, Lorenzo,

neither of them riding. Marc Marquez is in pretty good form but he broke

a tow and a finger to weeks ago. Cal Crutchlow is walking wounded. Every

rider you talk about. At the moment, Stefan Bradl is the fastest out

there. The fastest this weekend has been 93, Marc Marquez, the young

Spaniard. 1.24.849, that is the fastest we have seen all weekend.

Cal Crutchlow is on a great run as well. I fear for him because if he

is really beaten up it will be hard to run a race distance. It is

amazing what adrenaline does. Crutchlow is about to go fastest

coming over the line. Rossi initially was fastest. Crutchlow is

two tenths under. Casey Stoner got the all-time record in 2008. Marquez

has just missed out on that pesky turn 11, down to turn 12 where we

saw Casey Stoner crashed trying to pass his team-mate. That was

probably the turning point of the championship last year. Stefan Bradl

is fighting it, he is a cowboy. Marquez holding third, expect more

from him and from Stefan bravo. Espargaro is still in fifth place,

an extraordinary performance. Stefan Bradl really led from the front

yesterday, he was fastest in the second session and ended the day the

fastest man on track. There is his team boss. Dovizioso, who just made

this session, has got a bit on the get up front from 11th, where he is.

They struggle with quick direction change and that is what you need

here. Yes, not at all about horsepower here. You are in good

company, Stefan Bradl. You are -- at least you are up and running.

have seen an identical crash with Valentino Rossi in the race. Too

much lean angle. We were talking about 60 degrees of lean angle. This

is the second long corner, the bike just slides out from underneath him.

The grip gives up on you. There is only a certain angle that you can

get out, the kinetic energy wants to go on. It is an extraordinary

concept to think that the bike is near horizontal than stood up. --

nearer. There is Valentino Rossi, racing through the part of the

circuit where Lorenzo was injured yesterday. An astonishing crash

because it was more in 11 than ten. Now Rossi pulls into the pits.

Callao audio quality, Smith behind him. -- Claudio Corti. Another

couple of tenths chipped away for Stefan Bradl. We were talking about

his finger, that has more or less sealed up. He has a little finger

that is bent and will never straighten up for the rest of his

life, though. Dovizioso sitting in ninth place. His team-mate Nicky

Heidenreich behind him. -- Nicky Hayden. Cal Crutchlow is holding

pole with more than half the session going. Will this guy be able to

close him down? Rossi is just one tenth behind him. Last stab at it,

guys, six minutes remaining. I think we have some more changes yet to

come, everybody is getting a bit braver. Just take a look at that,

the way he is shifting his body around on there, it is like

tightrope walking, moving his body weight around. The bike should be

falling over but he stands it up, lays it down, stand it up. The back

wheel was over steering and drifting. Astonishing commitment, in

terms of appearance Marc Marquez is the most aggressive rider. Yes, the

most animated. Local hero Stefan Bradl across the line. Spare bike,

different brakes. He will have two tried to do while himself into this

bike. He took one end was rather scraped and scratched. -- he took

one in. Stefan Bradl runs two very different setups, one has a longer

swingarm full stop sometimes they can compromise that by the sliders.

Petrucci made it through into qualifying but he is now on the

gravel. Dovizioso usually can hold his breath for a lap. This is the

second shortest track that we go to. We are in California next weekend.

All this year has to be shipped out there. Valentino Rossi looking for a

clear piece of track. California is the shortest lap of the year. This

is the second shortest. You can see all the rubble and debris thrown out

to the edge of the track. Just similar speeds here over the top of

the hill. About 280 kilometres per hour. It is hard to do justice to

the steepness of the hills around here. They are massively heavy

hills. They gathered so much pace. Then you climb all the way back up

to the start -- finish straight. We will keep an eye on this. That is a

provisional pole. The scary part coming up. We tip into the right.

Poultry breath. He is through it. Just underneath the fastest time.

This is provisional pole position. Stefan Bradl crossing the line.

Marquez on the last corner. He goes across the line. 1.21.3. He will

have seen that time. I do not even know if you have time to look at

it. You are doing everything you can to get everything just right. The

back wheel comes up in the air. Down into second gear. Marc Marquez, he

says on this circuit in particular being so tight, the scenery comes at

you so fast. Stefan Bradl started very well. Just drifted out on the

second sector. This is much better from Nicky Hayden. He goes up to

fifth position. Just over one minute remaining of this session. Can

Stefan Bradl get it all together? Look at Alex Espargaro. He goes in

fifth place. In front of Nicky Hayden. He is very fast in the

middle section of the lap. Cal Crutchlow still in the middle of the

front row. Half a minute left. Valentino Rossi will start from the

front row. Or he will if he can keep up this pace. He is even under the

time set by Marquez. Very close. One more corner to go. He will try to

get his head down as quickly as he possibly can. Valentino Rossi

chasing pole position. He moves up to second place. Cal Crutchlow has

just gone faster again. Unbelievable stuff. Rossi had it for a second,

Cal Crutchlow took it back. world of motorcycling loves

Valentino Rossi. What an ambassador for the sport. Marquez holds it by

one tenth from Cal Crutchlow who is one tent in front of Valentino

Rossi. Cal Crutchlow has done that with his hands red rule from gravel

rash. He will be absolutely in agony. So the front row, Honda,

Yamaha, Yamaha. Stefan Bradl will not be in the front row for his home

Grand Prix, disappointingly. Nicky Hayden rounding it off. It was very

good riding from Valentino Rossi. Quality and Petrucci 10th and 11th

respectively. -- Corti. We are missing Jorge Lorenzo and Dani

Pedrosa, let us not forget. These series of crashes have learned the

championship right open. Talk about a leveller. Every team scratching

their heads. This CRT stuff is so good. Next year of course we have

the production -based Honda coming in. You can purchase that engine to

He still has got that speed. The team will be pleased. Perhaps having

one or two pints of beer tonight. Alex Espargaro the middle of the

second row to start. With the absence of Dani Pedrosa a certain

inevitability be about him getting all position. Pedrosa has one the

last three years on the trot. -- has won. He came here leading the

championship. But Stefan Bradl will be disappointed with that. I think

that was real frustration when he walked in there. He would want a

front row at the very minimum. Valentino Rossi had that second

place for about two seconds until old dog yet, as you say. Top speeds,

even though it is such a short lap. A brilliant ride from Crutchlow. And

he is in a great position. If you are in any pain, we see that your

hands are bandaged, but you did not show it in that session. That was

the plan, not to show the pain. But I am definitely in pain. I would say

this weekend is the toughest race I have had riding injured. I did not

feel well because of what happened yesterday. I took some big banks to

the head. I have got some abrasions on my arm. And this morning did not

go that well. But I took a calculated decision. I thought we

had to try to write today and it was a good job we did. But the podium

tomorrow is going to be very difficult. The team are doing a good

job. I made a mistake yesterday with the first crash. The second I think

was due to that red flag. We waited in the pit lane with no direction. I

try my best and it is good to be back on the front row under

conditions like that. With Valentino and Marquez being at 100% and me

not. Valentino Rossi, his best qualifying of the season. He has not

been on the front row over year. was a big effort from Cal Crutchlow.

The question is with that kind of injury and open wounds, that he can

actually hang together for a race distance. He is knocked around but

adrenaline is a wonderful thing. I am sure that that will kick in.

Valentino Rossi, his tale will be up after so many races without much in

the way of podium action let alone a win. It will be a great relief that

he still can do it. Winning in Assen. And that will carry over into

this weekend without his team-mate. Congratulations, third hole of the

season and a really big chance now. I am happy, very happy. We got pole

position but I feel so good with the bike this year. I always feel strong

so for tomorrow I think we will have a good day. We hope to get weather

like that because if it is hot it is a bit better going round. But we

will try to do our best. I feel ready for a fight for the podium and

even victory. We need to pay attention to the rivals. Good luck

for tomorrow. Well he can certainly right. Marc

Marquez on pole for the third time this season in the race tomorrow and

possibly going for the championship lead. Let us hope he can be joined

out there on the grid by his team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, who will

face a late fitness check tomorrow morning. Valentino Rossi also