Submitted by Jacob Leech on
Full Recap and Results Below:
Under brilliant sunshine and perfect racing conditions Jack Miller has taken his fourth victory of the season during an incident packed race for the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring. Championship leader Miller lead every lap from pole to take a decisive victory as he saw his title rivals Romano Fenati and Alex Rins crash out. Brad Binder rode a brilliant race and pushed Miller all the way to claim his first ever podium position, a well deserved result for the South African teenager. Frenchman Alexis Masbou rode a typically canny race to take the final podium place and edge out Alex Marquez and Danny Kent who claimed a morale boosting fifth.
Efren Vazquez crossed the line over 20 seconds behind the leaders but did well to avoid the chaos unfolding around him and finish in sixth after starting way down the order, he beat his team mate John McPhee to the line while Isaac Vinales put in a brave ride for eighth place after suffering with severe flu all weekend. Matteo Ferrari and Juanfran Guevara rounded out the top ten at the tail of a fierce battle that spanned back as far as eighteenth place midway through the race.
Alex Rins crashed at turn two on the opening lap after Gabriel Rodrigo had initially crashed at turn one. Enea Bastianini also crashed at the end of the opening lap as Bryan Shouten and Scott Deroue came together a lap later, the countrymen almost came to blows in the gravel trap. Championship challenger Romano Fenati then crashed on lap three as he was trying to charge his way through the field from 25th on the grid. In a race that saw no less than eleven riders retire Karel Hanika and Miguel Oliveira crashed out of the race with seven laps remaining while battling for sixth place and Niccolo Antonelli had yet another crash with three laps remaining, squandering a chance to score some decent points in seventh.
Ultimately though Jack Miller extends his Championship lead to 19 points over Alex Marquez and did everything right throughout the race. The Australian kept his nose clean and reasserted his early season dominance over the junior class heading into the mid season break.
Results:
Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
1 | 25 | 8 | Jack MILLER | KTM | 39'26.927 |
2 | 20 | 41 | Brad BINDER | Mahindra | 0.180 |
3 | 16 | 10 | Alexis MASBOU | Honda | 1.119 |
4 | 13 | 12 | Alex MARQUEZ | Honda | 1.180 |
5 | 11 | 52 | Danny KENT | Husqvarna | 1.290 |
6 | 10 | 7 | Efren VAZQUEZ | Honda | 26.231 |
7 | 9 | 17 | John MCPHEE | Honda | 26.336 |
8 | 8 | 32 | Isaac VIÑALES | KTM | 26.474 |
9 | 7 | 3 | Matteo FERRARI | Mahindra | 26.583 |
10 | 6 | 58 | Juanfran GUEVARA | Kalex KTM | 26.735 |
11 | 5 | 84 | Jakub KORNFEIL | KTM | 26.873 |
12 | 4 | 65 | Philipp OETTL | Kalex KTM | 27.009 |
13 | 3 | 61 | Arthur SISSIS | Mahindra | 27.305 |
14 | 2 | 57 | Eric GRANADO | KTM | 30.084 |
15 | 1 | 33 | Enea BASTIANINI | KTM | 45.125 |
16 | 17 | 19 | Alessandro TONUCCI | Mahindra | 45.539 |
17 | 5 | 95 | Jules DANILO | Mahindra | 46.025 |
18 | 68 | 38 | Hafiq AZMI | KTM | 46.110 |
19 | 8 | 43 | Luca GRÜNWALD | Kalex KTM | 56.787 |
20 | 70 | 22 | Ana CARRASCO | Kalex KTM | 57.149 |
21 | 63 | 97 | Maximilian KAPPLER | FTR | +1'09.312 |
22 | 23 | 91 | Gabriel RODRIGO | Husqvarna | 1 Lap |
23 | 9 | 86 | Kevin HANUS | Honda | 1 Lap |
Not Classified | |||||
23 | Niccolò ANTONELLI | KTM | 3 Laps | ||
44 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | Mahindra | 8 Laps | ||
98 | Karel HANIKA | KTM | 8 Laps | ||
55 | Andrea LOCATELLI | Mahindra | 12 Laps | ||
11 | Livio LOI | KTM | 14 Laps | ||
4 | Gabriel RAMOS | Kalex KTM | 15 Laps | ||
5 | Romano FENATI | KTM | 24 Laps | ||
63 | Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN | Honda | 24 Laps | ||
9 | Scott DEROUE | Kalex KTM | 26 Laps | ||
51 | Bryan SCHOUTEN | Mahindra | 26 Laps | ||
42 | Alex RINS | Honda | 0 Lap |
Comments
Gravel Trap Shenanigans
I am curious to see the decision from race direction about Schouten's "attack" on Deroue in the gravel which looked pretty darn ridiculous. I have no doubt that there will be a ruling on unsportsmanlike behaviour again and rightly so. If I remember correctly Niklas Ajo was banned for a race a few years ago after throwing a weak punch at a marshall, so if RD is consistent with their ruling, the attempted choking of Deroue or whatever move Schouten was going for should be penalised with enough points to have him sit out a race.
But anyway, quite a spectacular race to watch. A pity about the abundance of crashes, but excellent work from Miller yet again and well chuffed for Binder finding his feet and capping it off with a fantastic first podium finish. Smiles all around ahead of the holidays I'd say.
Go Bradical!
So pleased to see Brad finally get his first podium. I've followed him since his time in the rookies, he's a good clean rider and really deserves some success. We were on the edge of our seats all race and cheered as he crossed the line.
If only he could have managed it at Assen when we were there! ;)