Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/346427
MOTOGP MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 9/JULY 13, 2014 SACHSENRING CIRCUIT/SACHSENRING, GERMANY P78 comfortably top production Honda; with the next two – Aoyama and Abraham – disputing 12th in that order to the end. Nicky Hayden's RCV1000R was next, as he picked up speed and positions in the closing laps. He might have been higher, he allowed, but for a lack of confidence in the early laps, drop- ping to last. "It was a shame to start with so much prudence, because on the last 15 laps I had a pretty good pace, and I could have caught Aoyama and Abraham." Petrucci took the last point, a second ahead of the downcast Bradl, now in danger of losing 16th to Hernandez and the Pramac Ducati. Smith had a fifth crash of the weekend after his pit-lane start, but remounted for an eventual MILLER BACK ON TOP Red Bull KTM's Jack Miller was well in control throughout practice and qualifying, and from start to finish of the race. Being Moto3 and being the Sachsenring, the margins were very narrow. Qualifying had been disrupted by rain, leaving title contenders Efren Vazquez and Romano Fenati 17th and 25 th , respectively. Miller led away while one notable rival, third-row starter Alex Rins, crashed out in the second corner after a collision. It was Rins's teammate Alex Mar- quez in pursuit, with second-fastest qualifier Alexis Masbou in his tracks. Together with Danny Kent and Brad Binder they formed a breakaway group of five. Places changed frequently, except for first. That belonged to Miller, if only by inches at times. Before half- distance, however, Binder's Mahindra was in second; and over the last four laps the pair drew away. Several lunges by Binder came to nothing; and what he described as "Jack's perfect last lap" secured a fourth victory of the year for the rising Australian. Close behind Masbou prevailed in the final scramble, from Marquez and Kent. Vazquez made his way through to sixth, at the head of a huge gang from teammate John McPhee; but Fenati had a second race crash, worryingly unable to get to his feet for a while. Sixth to 13th was covered by just over a second; with Isaac Vinales recovering from fever to head Matteo Ferrari, Juanfran Guevari, Jakub Kornfei, Philipp Oettl and Arthur Sis- sis, the Australian rider's first points Aleix Espargaro (41) leads the factory Ducatis of Cal Crutchlow (35) and Andrea Dovizioso (04) en route to finishing sixth. Bradley Smith suffered his fifth crash of the weekend in the Grand Prix.