MotoReview

Nicky Hayden

“We’ve had a short break and I’m really looking forward to getting to Germany – it’s a track I quite like. In the first section it’s pretty well follow-the-leader and you’ve just got to be patient and get through there, but the last part of the track I really like. The 5th gear drop-away is really good and it’s a pretty sweet feeling when you get that one right. There’s a lot of racing still to go this year and there’s quite a few races coming up at tracks I like, so I’m definitely feeling ready for the second half of the season.”

Dani Pedrosa

“As always this year my first job is to learn how to ride the RCV at this track. Sachsenring has some really slow sections and really fast sections so I don’t know how it will be to ride this bike.

For sure the first part will be very tight because it was very tight on a 250 so I’m waiting to see how a MotoGP bike will feel through here. My results at this track have been pretty good in previous years but of course in MotoGP it will be a different challenge and I’m taking nothing for granted.” 

Valentino Rossi

"I am very confident that by Sachsenring my hand will be back to 100%, or near enough," says Rossi, who won the German Grand Prix for Yamaha last year to add to previous MotoGP and 250cc successes in 2002 and 1999. "I have been working hard with my physiotherapist Marco Montanari and Dr Costa and hopefully it will continue to improve at this rate. It's really nice to have had time for a rest now after three very hard weeks, even if it's not so long. I spent some time in Italy and then a few days at home in London, relaxing and seeing friends.

"The important thing for Sachsenring is that we come out of the box on Friday morning ready to make the most of every available minute of practice time. We can't afford to lose time in practice with set-up problems like we had in Donington, and I am sure that Yamaha has been working at the maximum over the break so we will be ready to be competitive from Friday morning. Sachsenring is quite a different track, very tight and twisty, but last year our bike worked very well there, we were able to win and hopefully that will be the case again this year."

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