VOL. 51 ISSUE 28 JULY 15, 2014 P71
dominance. The 21-year-old has
done it in all sorts of different cir-
cumstances, starting with a still
recovering broken leg at Qatar.
We are witnessing a phenom-
enon.
The Sachsenring circuit is
uniquely short and complex, with
a plethora of left-hand corners
and a terrifying right-hand swoop
down a steep hill. As at Assen,
fickle weather played a crucial
part, almost all weekend.
Stefan Bradl (6) led
a horde of privateers
off the start line
as the factory men
started the race from
pit lane.
Most signally for the big race
of the day, after the first two had
run in the dry. With 20 minutes to
MotoGP, heavy rain swept across
the hillside, drenching the track,
and throwing tactics into turmoil.
Marquez lined up on pole
heading an all-Honda front row,
with German hope Stefan Bradl
and his LCR Honda at the far
end, and Repsol teammate Dani
Pedrosa in between. Behind
them NGM Forward Yamaha's
Briefly...
The canny Dovizioso remained tight-
lipped, saying: "I have to consider
every option;" adding that he would
not rule out a return to a satellite
team. He left Tech 3 Yamaha to join
Ducati last season, but would be high
on the wish list both for that team and
either of the satellite Honda squads.
And Suzuki, where his experience
and reliability would be hugely valu-
able.
Race-day brought confirmation of
what had become a worst-kept se-
cret – that the influential Aspar team
owned by former multi-champion
Jorge Martinez is to switch its Moto3
effort from KTM to Mahindra next
year, with a two-rider squad. On a day
when one of the six Mahindra cus-
tomer bikes took the Indian marque's
best-ever result with Brad Binder's
second place, it showed the grow-
ing strength of the Suter-built rac-
ers. Mahindra Racing chairman SP
Shukla said: "We are delighted with
today's developments – both the As-
par partnership and Binder's great
result on a Mahindra bike. Both am-
ply demonstrate the capability and
potential of the Mahindra package."
Contracts were a more controversial
topic elsewhere in Moto3 … cen-
tered around the Marc VDS pit, and
humming with "mystery surrounds"
intrigue and contradiction. The major
issue concerned series leader Jack
Miller, a hot property who insists his
immediate future is not yet decided.
The response from the Belgian team
was to announce that in fact they al-
ready had the Australian under con-
tract for 2015 and 2016 for Moto2.
Not only that, but this had been al-
ready set in stone (or at least in the
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