VOL. 52 ISSUE 28 JULY 18, 2015 P67
not have come soon enough
for Marquez, who made it clear
before the weekend that he
hasn't given up hope yet of a
third title win. "There is still half
the season left," Marquez said,
when asked which of the Yama-
ha riders he would prefer to see
winning. Others might see it as
a foregone conclusion. He does
not share that view. This win cut
the deficit down to 65 points on
Rossi. He needs to claw back
to an average of just over seven
points per race. In Germany, he
took back nine. Keep it up, and
Briefly...
Bridgestone's asymmetric front tire
returned at the Sachsenring, rede-
signed after a flawed debut at Phillip
Island last year, to ease the transition
from the soft right-hand compound to
the harder compound in the center
and on the left. Performance in last
year's Australian Grand Prix was un-
dermined by rapidly dropping temper-
atures in the race—run two hours later
than usual to make it more friendly to
European TV schedules—and a num-
ber of riders crashed on it later in the
race. It returned at the final round at
Valencia, but did not prove popular.
The German Grand Prix return was
prompted by the track's notorious
turn 11 (a 124-plus mph right-hander
that follows a series of seven left-
handers), the scene of many crashes
over the years—including this year.
Marc Marquez was the first to try it,
in FP2 on Friday, and immediately
improved his lap time. Thereafter the
majority of riders used the tire, distin-
guished by turquoise-blue color-cod-
ing. "The front tire choice will be the
key to the race," said Valentino Rossi,
who set his best qualifying time on the
tire. Of the top riders, only Pedrosa
was unconverted, after a brief trial on
Saturday.
Bridgestone also added an extra-
hard front to the allocation at the
last minute, in response to a heat
wave in the area during the previous
week, which most thought superflu-
ous. In the event, with race-day track
temperatures three degrees higher
than at any time in practice, only
the factory Honda riders chose it,
and finished first and second. All the
rest except for Scott Redding, Cal
Crutchlow, Yonny Hernandez and
Jack Miller raced the asymmetric.
It was the usual
suspects fighting
for the lead early
on—Marquez
(93), Jorge
Lorenzo (99),
Valentino Rossi
(46) and Dani
Pedrosa (26).
continued on next page
