July 13, 2014 will remain in the memory of many German sports fans forever. Mainly because the German national team crowned itself football world champion for the fourth time with a 1-0 win after extra time against Argentina. But something extraordinary also happened in MotoGP that Sunday. A change in the weather shortly before the start left Stefan Bradl almost alone on the grid, with the top pilots milling around in the narrow pit lane. It was nothing less than one of the craziest start phases of all time. Motorsport-Magazin.com looks back on this memorable day.
Rain shower shortly before the start: Chaotic grid phase at the Sachsenring
0.180 seconds between Jack Miller and Brad Binder, 91 thousandths between Dominique Aegerter and Mika Kallio – the 2014 German Grand Prix had already produced two absolute crackers in Moto3 and Moto2 when the top stars of the motorcycle world championship were preparing for their 30-lap race at around 1:30 p.m. The task could hardly have been more difficult, as a short, light rain shower had swept across the Sachsenring shortly before. It stopped again just in time for the pit lane to open, but the asphalt was still dangerously wet on this otherwise warm summer day in eastern Germany.
All drivers completed the trial lap on rain tires. When they arrived at the grid, there was unrest, the tension was palpable. Since the race management had already declared the race a ‘wet race’, almost everyone expected a thrilling flag-to-flag race with an early bike change to slicks. While the clouds were still hanging low over the Sachsenring at the beginning, the sun began to shine more and more strongly a good ten minutes before the start of the race. The track dried out again, but not everywhere. In the infield or in the Sachsenkurve, for example, hardly any sunrays reached, which is why the asphalt remained wet.
Rain tires or slicks? Would some drivers take risks? The last few minutes before the start of the race were hectic and tense. In the stands and at home in front of the television, spectators waited anxiously for the tire list from standard manufacturer Bridgestone to be published. And then it actually happened! Three drivers would gamble. Hiroshi Aoyama, Karel Abraham – and local hero Stefan Bradl, who had qualified in third place on the grid. They had all switched to slick tires after the grid inspection lap and hoped to win the lottery.
14 pilots in the pit lane: Stefan Bradl gambles his way into the lead
And indeed, at first everything looked like that. During the warm-up lap it was already clear that the track had largely dried out. The slicks were the right choice, which the other drivers also recognized. No fewer than 14 drivers turned into the pit lane at the end of the warm-up lap to change motorcycles and start the German Grand Prix from the end of the pit lane. Absolute chaos broke out, suddenly 14 MotoGP stars were milling around on their bikes in an area of around 25 square meters.
This also created a completely confusing picture on the starting grid. Only nine of the original 23 drivers were left. What was particularly strange was that the only driver in the first five rows was the German Stefan Bradl, with Aoyama and Abraham only following in row six. The CRT drivers Colin Edwards, Hector Barbera, Broc Parkes, Danilo Petrucci, Michael Laverty and Mike Di Meglio were also positioned even further back. They all stayed on rain tires and hoped for more rain.
When the starting lights went out shortly after 2 p.m., Bradl took the lead, not surprisingly and to the delight of the German fans, while Marc Marquez won the mass start from the pit lane. Hopes were growing that the LCR Honda rider could achieve a historic MotoGP victory for Germany at his home race. After Bradl finished the first lap with a lead of almost eight seconds over Marquez and the chasing pack, it quickly became clear that this was unlikely to happen. In the second lap, the Repsol Honda star made up more than two seconds on Bradl, even though he had to overtake several slow CRT riders away from the dry racing line.
Bradl’s lead quickly melted away; after four laps, Marc Marquez and his teammate Dani Pedrosa were already within 2.7 seconds. At the end of the sixth lap, the inevitable happened: Marquez took the lead in the final corner. Bradl could not hold his ground, and just a few corners later, in the infield, he lost second place to Pedrosa. While Marquez flew away to his ninth win in a row, the German was in reverse. On lap ten, Jorge Lorenzo overtook him, and on lap eleven, Valentino Rossi and Andrea Iannone did too. And so it went on: first Aleix Espargaro, then Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow. Halfway through the race, Bradl was already only in ninth place, but he didn’t stay there. Scott Redding, Pol Espargaro, Alvaro Bautista, Aoyama, Abraham, Nicky Hayden and Danilo Petrucci overtook him before he crossed the finish line. 53.889 seconds behind and 16th place – ultimately not even a single World Championship point was scored.
Failed setup change: Bradl drives with mixed setting
But why did Bradl have so little chance in the 2014 German GP, when he had actually gambled right? “I decided on the slicks on the grid. That was the right decision. Unfortunately, we had a few problems when my mechanics changed the bike from the wet to the dry setup,” revealed the Augsburg native after the race. The replacement at the rear took too long, which meant that the front fork could no longer be changed. The result: “I rode with my mixed setting. The front was set up for rain, the rear for dry conditions.”
The LCR driver was unable to keep up with the rest of the top drivers, who had only switched to slicks in the pit lane. “After the start, I thought I was in the lead and could perhaps maintain my advantage until the end. But the others were much faster, I was losing two seconds per lap,” Bradl quickly realised. “I couldn’t brake. I was immediately at the bottom of the fork, had no slowdown. The front felt like rubber and moved far too much.”
Knowing about the botched setup change, the German could of course have come into the pits at the end of the warm-up lap and changed his bike, but he decided against it – which was a fatal decision in retrospect. “I thought I would have a greater advantage starting on the grid,” he sighed. “That’s very disappointing.” Bradl was not to get a better chance at his first MotoGP victory, and the LCR team parted ways with him at the end of the year. Two seasons in the lower midfield with Forward and Aprilia followed before Bradl’s MotoGP career as a regular rider ended in 2016 – unfortunately without a MotoGP victory.