by Nico Cereghini

The transfer to Germany was not without problems: the appalling weather affected nearly all the practice sessions, made work on the bikes very complicated and, as a result, very few of the riders had their machines set up as they would have liked. The Honda HRCs were the exception to the rule. What a lesson for Yamaha! Lorenzo finished second, 15 seconds behind the winner Pedrosa and the Yamaha team will no doubt be asking questions about what the unexpected lesson means. Dani Pedrosa had his sights set on Stoner who led from the second to the eighteenth lap and who had every appearance of repeating his win at Assen. Instead, the Spanish rider refused to let his team mate pull away then launched an attack on lap nineteen and took the lead. The pair continued to fight until, with the chequered flag in sight, Casey made a final attempt to take control of the race and fell: The Australian was out of it. Now Jorge Lorenzo unexpectedly leads the MotoGP standings with a lead of 14 points over Pedrosa and 20 on Stoner.

Behind the leaders, the ever-consistent Andrea Dovizioso was happy to show his rivals the rear of his leathers: those with this view were Ben Spies, an excellent Stefan Bradl and Valentino Rossi right behind him in sixth position and only eight seconds off the podium. Hayden finished tenth and Petrucci seventeenth. Pasini was an early faller and Pirro went out with mechanical problems. The Ducatis appeared to be in fairly good shape and also to be making progress in the dry. Rossi prevailed on his team mates by fighting with Bradl on a level par. Do the results from Sachsenring really reflect the true situation or were they just the outcome of a somewhat unusual GP for the reasons stated above? We'll certainly find out more at Mugello.

Marc Marquez delivered a peerless performance to win in Moto2 with Pol Espargaro forced to start from far back on the grid following disastrous qualifying. Andrea Iannone was up with the front runners but unfortunately lost the front end and went into the gravel. He was able to rejoin the race but finished out of the points. Alex De Angelis put up a great fight with the Spanish rider but was passed by Kallio and finished in third place on the podium. Pol managed to come home in fourth place, the result of a magnificent come back from a lowly position on the grid. He is now second in the standings, 43 points behind the leader Marquez who has already won four races out of eight. Luthi came home fifth with Simone Corsi behind him.

The Moto3 race rounded off the day. The start was delayed due to a downpour and run in the wet. Cortese won the race while Viñalles had a disastrous race, as did Fenati. Masbou came home second with Salom in third. Niccolò Antonelli, again the best of the Italian riders, finished in a lowly twelfth position. The results from the Italian riders are very different from what we expected following the first few races of 2012. Let's hope that we can put things right at Mugello.

by Nico Cereghini

The Sachsenring is a track the Spaniards like: Pedrosa, Marquez and Faubel were the winners last time round. On the German track though, everyone performs well. Lorenzo will want to put the events of Assen behind him and Stoner is back in great form. Iannone and Antonelli are the Italians to follow.

by Nico Cereghini

The third consecutive win for Jorge Lorenzo at Silverstone. It is already the fourth victory on six races and the Yamaha rider now has a 25 point lead over Stoner. It may not be a huge lead but Honda have a lot of technical problems (with tyres in first place) and with Casey having announced his retirement at the end of the year, he no longer appears to be fully committed to the long-term development work needed to find solutions. The Australian doesn’t do much practice and even his own team are complaining. In contrast, this year's M1 is beautifully balanced, Lorenzo's finishes are beyond comparison and the number 99 rider appears to fully believe the title is his for the taking.

The race was a showcase for the talent of Alvaro Bautista (surprise pole and just off the podium in fourth place at the flag) and the heroism of Crutchlow who finished sixth after starting from the back of the grid due to a nasty fall before qualifying. The Italian riders failed to make an impression. The Ducatis finished far down the rankings after falls on the Saturday then Dovizioso pulled out in mid race while challenging for a podium spot. There is much debate about the Ducati falls as the dynamics were almost identical: Was the front tyre carcass too soft? Is the Ducati steering too delicate? According to Guareschi it was just a puncture. It was just as well however that in both cases the riders' air-bags worked to perfection and saved them from serious injury such a broken collar bone or worse. During the race Nicky Hayden was well up with the front runners but a number of mistakes dropped him to seventh place. Not even Valentino made much of a showing: he has never particularly liked the track, his performance in qualifying was negative and he never really found his rhythm. His ninth place, 36 seconds behind the winner, is probably best forgotten. Michele Pirro on the other hand put in a good performance to finish thirteenth overall and third in the CRT class that this time was dominated by Aleix Espargaro.

Iannone and Corsi were going well in the pack leading the Moto2 race but in the end, Pol Espargaro crushed his rivals with a dominant display after the half way mark. In a fabulous, clean fight the British rider Redding held off the favourite Marquez. Iannone, Corsi and Corti spared no effort and had a great race finishing right behind Marquez. The race for the title is still wide open: Marc Marquez is only six points clear of Espargaro and Luthi and 18 ahead of Andrea Iannone.

In Moto3, two riders top the standings: Viñales who won again and Cortese (third here at Silverstone) who is just two points behind the leader. The sixth round saw the usual break away at the start. From a score of young riders ready to fight to the bitter end, a group of three managed to break away with Luis Salom finishing second behind Viñales, Romano Fenati was the best of the Italians and finished seventh; Niccolò Antonelli was thirteenth ahead of Ajo, Moncayo and Alessandro Tonucci. Compared with some of his earlier races, Fenati seems to have lost a little of his shine. Although he is always fast and was able to make up ground he lost at the start and catch up with the leaders, we are sure that there is still a lot more to come from him.