Joan Mir: 9th
Alex Rins: 11th

Team Suzuki Ecstar’s riders made the best of a tricky situation at Round 8 of the MotoGP™ World Championship in Sachsenring, Germany.

Alex Rins started 11th on the grid and Joan Mir moved up one place from qualifying, starting 16th following a penalty for Enea Bastianini. It was a tough start to the race for the pair as the field bunched up into the first corners. However, Rins got into eighth and Mir into 12th by the end of Lap 2. On the third lap of the race Joan Mir set the fastest time as he began to close in on the riders in front; this strong pace saw him move into ninth.

On Lap 9 some rain spots began to fall around the German circuit, and the white flag flew allowing riders to swap bikes if necessary. This had a concertina effect on the pack, with a sudden closing of ranks as riders made a bid to get the best out of the tyres followed by a spread of the gaps.

The rain eased off as the race progressed and no-one needed to perform a bike swap, so Mir was able close on the pack which went from third to seventh ahead of him. Rins slipped to 12th as the laps ticked on. However a final push saw him rise to 11th for the chequered flag – an impressive performance just two weeks after he broke his arm. Mir lost a position to Francesco Bagnaia on Lap 25 but a ninth place finish was good damage limitation as it keeps him fifth in the Championship standings.

Joan Mir:

“It was a difficult race weekend, I felt a bit better with the bike today and I recovered a lot of positions despite the fact that it’s so hard to overtake here. I got behind the lead group but it was really tough to make more places. I was pushing but I had nothing left. Today they were faster than us, and it’s like this sometimes. We’ll take good info from today and try to learn from it. Riding was quite a struggle this weekend, but I gave my best as always and the team tried to make things easier for me. The important thing is I brought home a 9th place and some points which means I hold onto 5th in the Championship. I’m going to work hard to improve myself as a rider, and the team are also working hard to improve the bike. I’m looking forward to next weekend.”

Alex Rins:

“It was a bit hard today because my arm still isn’t 100%, but this track has more left-handed corners than right-handed, and I think that helped me quite a lot, it meant the pain was manageable. But I didn’t feel very comfortable when the rain arrived, I lost my feeling. After the rain went away I felt better but then I was losing grip on the rear, it dropped off more than I thought compared to the practices. But I kept trying and I was able to make some overtakings at the end of the race and I’m happy about that. It won’t be easy to ride again in just a few days, but I will rest and focus on Assen.”

Shinichi Sahara – Project Leader and Team Director:

“It was a difficult weekend for us, especially during qualifying. It was all quite messy yesterday with yellow flags and slow traffic and it forced us further down the grid. At a circuit like this it’s tough to start lower on the grid because it’s hard to overtake, but despite this both Alex Rins and Joan Mir gave 100% effort and worked very hard to recover positions. They did a really good job, and they both felt better with their bikes and also with the tyre management. Obviously we would like to do better next weekend in Assen. It’s a pretty good circuit for us and we’re feeling happy to go there.”

Ken Kawauchi – Technical Manager:

“Today we were able to improve compared to yesterday, but not enough. The grid positions weren’t very good and that made it harder for the riders. The only positive point was that both riders finished their race and picked up useful points. We’re turning our focus towards Assen now and let’s see how we can perform there.”

LIQUI MOLY MOTORRAD GRAND PRIX DEUTSCHLAND – MotoGP Race Classification:

1. M. MARQUEZ – Repsol Honda Team – 41:07.243
2. M. OLIVEIRA – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +01.610
3. F. QUARTARARO – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +06.772
4. B. BINDER – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +07.922
5. F. BAGNAIA – Ducati Lenovo Team +08.591
6. J. MILLER – Ducati Lenovo Team +09.086
7. A. ESPARGARO – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini +09.371
8. J. ZARCO – Pramac Racing +11.439
9. J. MIR – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +11.625
10. P. ESPARGARO – Repsol Honda Team +14.769
11. A. RINS – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +16.803
12. J. MARTIN – Pramac Racing +16.915
13. T. NAKAGAMI – LCR Honda IDEMITSU +19.217
14. V. ROSSI – Petronas Yamaha SRT +22.300
15. L. MARINI – SKY VR46 Avintia +23.615
16. E. BASTIANINI – Avintia Esponsorama +23.738
17. I. LECUONA – Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing +23.946
18. F. MORBIDELLI – Petronas Yamaha SRT +24.414 19. M. VIÑALES – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +24.715
Not Classified