BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Motorbikes | German joy for McWilliams

BBC Sport Online columnist Jeremy McWilliams reflects on an overdue change of fortune at the German GP at Sachsenring

After so many disappointments this year, I was delighted to achieve my best finish of the season, with a seventh place at Sachsenring.

The weekend started well for me as I grabbed provisional pole in Friday's opening qualifying session when I was posting quick laps at will.

Things were looking good for the weekend at that point with the new chassis and the Bridgestone tyres working well.

In final qualifying on Saturday, I could not get in a clean lap. Either I would make a little mistake or there would be something in my way.

Reasonable start

I just did not time it as well as on Friday and every time I went out I seemed to get stuck in traffic.

We also made a mistake with the gearbox. I changed it before qualifying but it was more of a disadvantage and we changed it back for the race.

I got off to a reasonable start in the race and managed to reach sixth position.

I did everything I could, but the way the four-strokes were flying past me on the straight was frightening.

Alex Barros crashed out late in the German MotoGP race
Alex Barros collided with Olivier Jacque's bike

My race was getting a bit silly as I dived underneath Max Biaggi in the first corner and nearly hit him and was running up people through the turns and messing up my lap time.

I was worried I might make a fool of myself, and in the end I just had to line up and think about finishing.

I would have loved a top four finish but although Bridgestone have come a long way in their first year, we still have more work to do.

The tyre started to deteriorate from around lap 20 but things have definitely improved in recent rounds and a lot of hard work has been put in.

In any case, it has been good to be racing among the front runners in the last few races - and even better to finish among them this time.

It would have been nice to see the two-strokes of Olivier Jacque and Alex Barros finish first and second for a change as I think they had the beating of Rossi.

Good form

Barros just came in a bit too hot, taking Jacque out with him and it was an unfortunate racing incident.

Anyhow, it was nice to get some good points on the board before the mid-summer break as it puts the whole team in good form.

We did some testing on the chassis on Monday and learnt some more about the settings.

It is more difficult to make major adjustments during the race weekend as you never want to stray too far from the settings you know work pretty well.

Hectic months

It will be nice to have some time to relax now as the last few weeks have been horrendously difficult.

In fact it has been a hectic few months but I can feel myself starting to wind down now.

There is no testing allowed before the next round so I am just happy to chill out and enjoy some free time.

In the next few weeks, I am going to the States to visit Kenny Roberts and ride a Harley Davidson for the first time, which I am looking forward to.

We are also going for a family holiday to Lough Erne, with some friends from Ireland and England joining us.

I will speak to you ahead of the next round at Brno in Czechoslavakia, near the end of August.


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