After a weekend of intense racing at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello (Italy), and before another highly anticipated event a week from now in Assen (the Netherlands), the MotoGP™ championship made a stopover at the German circuit of Sachsenring, in the region of Saxony, bordering the Czech Republic.
The Sachsenring circuit, which has hosted MotoGP since 1998, is located near Chemnitz, the third largest city in the region with nearly 250,000 inhabitants. Its lap is the shortest (3.671 km) and the slowest of the season, but it has specific characteristics that make it difficult to negotiate. Comprising ten left-hand corners, and just three to the right, and a 700m straight, it is taken in an anti-clockwise direction and forms a sort of snail at one of its ends. A sector that contains a series of left turns that are particularly hard on the tires and particularly the left part of their tread.
These conditions, well known in Clermont-Ferrand, had been anticipated by the Michelin Motorsport teams. They provided the MotoGP teams with asymmetrical tyres front and rear, reinforced on the left side. All situations had therefore been considered from a technical point of view, but the uncertainty came from the sky.
"We had to deal with changeable weather that was very different from last year," said Piero Taramasso, Michelin two-wheel competition manager. "Very variable temperatures down to 15°C, clouds and even heavy rain which washed the track, compared to the more than 50°C track temperatures of last season. In three days of on-track action, we had spring, summer and autumn weather. These rapid changes made it more difficult for the riders to find the right set-up, and this meant they were unable to beat the existing all-time circuit lap record. Nevertheless, as soon as we had a little more thermal stability, we could observe that the benchmark lap times in the MotoGP race fell, while in MotoEs they were impressively quick and consistent. This is the confirmation that our tyres work exceptionally well on the new electric Ducati race bikes for which they were specially developed. They drive this innovative and very important category for us into a new era, while performing as a support class for MotoGP – which remains the premier category of two-wheel racing worldwide."
In MotoGP, Johan Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) set the fastest lap during the race, with a time of 1min21s225. It slightly improved the previous race lap record time of Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) who had lapped in 1min21s228 during the 2019 Grand Prix. The race duration record was also broken, with the 30 laps completed in 40min52s 449 compared to 40min59s 525 in 2017.
On Saturday afternoon, Jorge Martin (Ducati/Prima Pramac Racing) won the Sprint race, ahead of Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati/Lenovo Team), and Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Team).
The Grand Prix, contested on Sunday at 2 p.m., saw another victory for Jorge Martin (Ducati / Prima Pramac Racing), again ahead of Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati / Lenovo Team), and the second Prima Pramac Racing Ducati of Johann Zarco.
Third round of the FIM MotoE™ World Championship
On the Sachsenring, the fifth and sixth rounds (out of 16) made it possible to establish new lap times on a track which had not welcomed electric motorcycles since 2019. Here too the weather played its part in the different sessions, with the first practice session taking place on a drying track with cool temperatures. The second session nevertheless allowed Matteo Ferrari (Felo Gresini MotoE) to beat the lap record (1min27s205), before qualifying played out in the rain. The two races then took place in more favorable conditions, and this 'all-season' day highlighted the consistency and versatility of the tyres. The riders praised the performance of the Michelin Power MotoE range, with their high levels of grip, whether the surface is dry or wet.
These characteristics are particularly important for Michelin because the FIM MotoE World Championship is a real-life testing opportunity for future technologies. The tyres that equip the electric Ducati incorporate special rubber mixes, which contain 52% sustainable materials at the rear, and 34% at the front. Michelin considers sustainable materials to be those that are bio sourced or recycled, with no impact on the environment. This proportion of sustainable materials is only increasing over time, at the same time accompanying the improvement in the performance of new generation motorcycles. In the future, whether it’s competition tyres or commercial tyres for consumers, all riders will be able to take advantage of these technologies which are developed in part with the help of MotoE.
The first of the two MotoE races was won by Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team), ahead of Randy Krummenacher (Dynavolt Intact GP MotoE) and Nicholas Spinelli (HP Pons Los40).
The second, halted by rain that had become too intense to continue on lap 6 (out of 10), saw the victory go to Hector Garzo (Dynavolt Intact GP MotoE), ahead of Mattia Casadei (HP Pons Los40), and Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team).MotoGP and MotoE will now continue with a third race weekend in a row, at the Motul TT Assen (Netherlands) taking place from 23-25 June.
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