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front of Pedrosa, at the time his closest championship rival. "There were parts of the tracks I felt pretty good, but I struggled to get off some of the corners good," the Kentuckian said. "Overall, these guys just rode a really strong race and I enjoyed it. But I thought coming in here, this should be a good track for me and I really wanted to win." Pedrosa admitted his weak point was exactly where he needed to be strong, in the downhill turn 13. "I will have to improve myself in the overtaking places because I tried hard in this race to not be overtaken and also to overtake the others, but it was not quite enough," he said. Capirossi was having a lonely ride until Nakano surprised him at the end. The Kawasaki rider took over sixth on the 11th lap and held it to the end, closing the gap to Capirossi to the finish. "By the middle of the race I could still see the battle for the lead, but they were too far in front of me to close the gap, despite me setting my fastest lap while chasing them," he said. Vermeulen moved into seventh on the 11th lap and stayed there to the finish, C Y C L E N E W S • JULY 26, 2006 19 John Hopkins (21) was eventually passed by his teammate Chris Vermeulen (71) and finished 10th, with Vermeulen climbing to seventh. so difficult because every race we were doing every day like one-hour technical meeting, two-hour personnel meeting, just to try to fix our relationship because Fabrizio [Cecchini] give me so much help at the beginning. He took me from the bottom of my life because I was so sad. And he helped me to learn to come back and enjoy riding. And he bring to me to win four races and to do second in the championship. In this moment, maybe this year we started with a different pressure or a different situation. And I think he was trying to help me a lot. Maybe he was trying like too much. For myself it's been... it was strange because when I explain to him my problem, for sure he try too hard to improve my situa- tion. But for me was difficult. So I felt like when you are wrong, you become older, you need to go along without your father." Melandri said that team owner Gresini recog- nized the problem and sanctioned the swap. The problems began during winter testing with the arrival of the new bike. After making the change in Germany, Melandri said, it was like starting over again. "Like today for all my staff the feeling was like the first day of school. So you feel inside just to know to understand the new mates - because we change also one mechanic and a guy from the tires." The improvement was immediate. "Today we make a big step, so I trust him to try to move and it's been good, because I've never been the fastest on Friday this year. For sure the other riders will come so strong for Sunday, but anyway it's been nice. At the beginning when Antonio [Jimenez] said to me 'I would like to do this and this and this,' for me it was totally strange because I never tried to do this, but it's been good." Toni Elias, Melandri's teammate, made his return after a two-race absence. The Spaniard crashed in practice at the Dutch TT, fracturing his left shoulder. "It hurts every time I move my arm and I can't even rest properly because it is even painful when I lay down," he said. Twice daily physiotherapy sessions have accel- erated his recovery, but he was wary about how well the shoulder would endure the tor- tuous Sachsenring. Elias qualified 16th and wasn't optimistic about the race. Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden said he had no idea when he might try Honda's 800. "We got enough over there for me to ride," he joked. "I don't need another one just yet. We might test that Sunday morning. Get a few laps in." Hayden also said that he'd begun the process of sorting out a contract for 2007. "Yeah, well we're talking. Now, I guess, is when stuff really gets going. Obviously my contract's up and we're talking to a few peo- ple and stuff, but everything's pretty good. It's nice to be in this position - be in a good position and stuff - just try to go with what gives me the best chance to win races." Hay- den's representatives were seen in the Marl- boro Ducati hospitality unit and they certain- ly would have talked to Yamaha. The title sponsor of the betandwin.com Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland changed names between the time it was named and the running of the race. Betandwin.com changed its name to bwin.com. The name was consid- ered too long and the word "bet" had negative connotations, according to market research. The lone German representative in the MotoGP World Championship was in high spirits, despite seeing his soccer team defeat- ed by the Italians in the semifinals of the World Cup. Pramac d'Antin's Alex Hof- mann understood that not everyone was happy with the quirky Sachsenring layout, but he insisted the Saxony area deserved the race. Said Hofmann: "I think, obviously, nobody is 'overhappy' with the track, but just the people, the public, and just the emo- tions over here. Forget about all the rest. It's just riding in front of 200,000 people in Ger- many is unbelievable. Everybody's asking me how big that sport must be in Germany. It doesn't really show how big our sport really is in the country. It's just this area that is real- ly crazy for racing and motorsports, so they deserve this GP more than any track in this area." The Sachsenring is in the former East Germany, which is home to the overwhelm- ing majority of race fans. Sunday's race was a near sell-out, with the cheapest ticket going for the equivalent of $61 and the most expensive costing $127. Hofmann was in the enviable position of being the first of the current MotoGP riders to test an 800, but he couldn't discuss it. "Actually, I'm feeling pretty honored sitting here with all these great names and being the only one knowing what the future brings," he said well after his test of the Ducati Desmosedici GP7. "But, on the other hand, Ducati pleased to ask me not to say about so much. We can say we had a good test and did a lot of laps and they're working very hard for next year, because they really have their target and they will be ready. That's about all I can say. There will be a lot to say, I know, but I just can't." Marlboro Ducati's Sete Gibernau was back in action for the first time in a month. The Spaniard had been sidelined with a broken collarbone and concussion suffered in the first turn of the Catalunya GP on June 18. He was nowhere near 100-percent fitness, but he was well enough to try to ride, he said in a wide-ranging interview on the eve of the race. "Better than a few weeks ago, that's for sure. We're okay," he said. "I think it's just been strange to miss one or two races after 11 years in Grand Prix. I had never missed a race, so it's strange. I have not got hurt actually since I'm in Grand Prix, which is big crashes and small things here and there. But never hurt to where I had to miss a race. You know it's been weird. Strange, for sure and it's strange to come back after that also." Gibernau started the first-turn chaos in Spain when his front-brake lever clipped the back of teammate Loris Capirossi's Desmosedici, sending him over the front and causing a chain reaction. The damage was a broken collarbone and concussion. Gibernau stayed in Barcelona for the treat- ment. "I needed to be there, because every three days I had to go for the head control. If they had to clean, they took off the stitches and cleaned and this and that. Being close to my mom and dad and my family has actually been quite good, maybe not good enough to stay, because I wanted to come back here, but it's been good." Gibernau admitted hav- ing a setback a week prior to his racing return "and then I had a real bad headache. I had to be six hours laying down and I was real bad. That was, like, not a good point. But then the next day it started to come down, we did some checking again with the doctors and everything was normal and okay." Gibernau hasn't seen the crash footage and doesn't plan to. Nor did he follow racing dur- ing his absence. "I can guarantee I have no idea of qualifying. I had no idea of qualifying or races or nothing." When asked why, he responded: "I don't know. It's all been strange." Gibernau was on a boat in the Mediterranean with friends on the day of the British GP. When a friend asked him how the race had gone, he had no idea," but that was quite funny because he came up to me, like going, expecting me to say to have a nice chat about the racing and I'm, like, 'Oh yeah the race, what's happening?' I've been here since 10 in the morning - I don't know.' " He said that he doesn't use launch control, but was aware of the discussion on preventing such incidents in the future. One of the highlights, at least for a very few, of the Sachsenring weekend is the annual demon- stration of how to properly eat the Bavarian white sausage, also known as the weiss- wurst. Tradition has it that on no account should the white sausage be eaten before the church bells have announced the noon hour, though no one knows why that is. The tradi- tional method of eating weisswurst is known as "zuzeln," which is Bavarian slang for suck- ing. Bavarian born and bred, Kawasaki team manager Harald Eckl is a master of the method, which demands the sausages be eaten without using one's hands. Other less experienced sausage-suckers, including rider Shinya Nakano, have suffered no small amount of grief from being photographed trying to master the somewhat indelicate maneuver. On Friday, Honda LCR's Casey Stoner was given an updated Honda chassis, which he promptly went out and crashed, tucking the front end. "The new chassis feels more nim- ble. I can change direction quicker and get off the corners better," he said. "Unfortu- nately, we didn't have a base setup, so it is taking a lot of time to find the right direction. And the morning session was a setback because I crashed the new bike and we lost some track time." Stoner crashed again in the morning warmup, this time tucking the front end on the cold right side of the tire in a downhill corner on his third lap out. World Superbike Champion Troy Corser stopped by the German GP on his way to a three-day Pirelli test at the Lausitzring, site of the September 8-10, 10th round of the cham- pionship. Despite being in street clothes, Corser was recognized and greeted warmly by the MotoGP fans. Though he wasn't able to stay for qualifying or the race, the Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider was impressed by the size of the Friday crowd. He said only two riders per team were allowed to test, which meant that it would be him and teammate Yukio Kagayama, the Japanese rider who's just getting over a wrist injury. Camel Yamaha's Valentino Rossi struggled more in Germany than he has all year. The Briefly... Continued on page 20 Continued from page 17