Kabuto riders at the Sachsenring

The special Sachsenring circuit hosted the ninth race of the 2024 World Championship last weekend. As always there, the turnout was massive, gathering more than 250,000 people throughout the weekend. Unfortunately for our Kabuto riders the balance of the weekend was far from what they and we expected. 

In the case of our Kabuto MotoGP rider, Aleix Espargaró, did not take part in the GP due to the crash in last week's DutchGP. Between the two events, Aleix traveled to Barcelona to undergo surgery for a fracture in the little finger of his right hand.  

Determined to start in Germany, he traveled to the Sachsenring to test, but as soon as he took to the track in the first free practice session on Friday morning, he realised that his physical condition was not fine to compete on track and would have compromise his recovery as well as potentially endangering his rivals on track. The three-week summer break that the championship has taken will allow our MotoGP rider Kabuto to fully recover without missing a race.  

But that doesn't mean that Kabuto was not represented in the premier class in Germany, as our regular WSBK rider Remy Gardner rode the weekend as a substitute rider for the factory Yamaha Team.

The joy of the GP weekend came this time from Collin Veijer, our young and talented Kabuto Moto3 rider. He won the pole position on Saturday afternoon, which obviously created in him and in all of us great expectations. 

"It's a great feeling to be on the pole again. But even yesterday I felt pretty confident all the time and did my laps on my own. So, I'm quite happy with how things have gone here so far, even though qualifying didn't start so well with my first run. It wasn't good at all, because I lost time in some places. But then with the new tyre I tried to push to the limit and was able to set a 1:24.8. But first my lap time was canceled because of the track limits, and I was a bit disappointed about that. Then I saw that the time was still 30 seconds off and I tried to do another lap, which ended up being perfect. I was also lucky that David Munoz didn't cross my line because I was a bit scared that he would hold me up. So, I'm very happy with this pole position here in Germany." 

Despite these good expectations, disappointment was not long in coming on Sunday. On the first lap of the race, Collin crashed on the fastest and most dangerous part of the German track. Despite his frustration, Veijer picked up his bike and rejoined the race. He crossed the finish line P18, and the first thing he did, still on the bike, was to apologise to the team for the mistake he had made.  

Colin Veijer said "I felt good, but it was unfortunate to crash. I turned into the corner, and I’ve no idea why I lost the front. I think it was just the colder side of the tyre. I could finish the race with half a bike, so we tried to get everything out of it. As long as the team is happy then so am I but I still want to say sorry to them. This was not the smartest race but let’s see what we can do after the summer break."

Jeremy Alcoba said “A race where I expected more from myself, to go faster and make a stronger comeback. I struggled, especially at the beginning, as the front tyre overheated a lot because I was behind other riders. But once I managed to pass them, I could push harder. We know where we need to improve, where our weak point is. With a better start, we could have finished in the top 6/7. The weekend was complicated, and we suffered a bit. Now it's time to reset, with three weeks of rest and training ahead.”

Remy Gardner said "The race was long, very long. You can tell when you haven't raced a GP for a long time, the Superbike races are 10 minutes shorter. The last four laps were never ending! But overall it was a positive weekend where we improved every day. My pace wasn't bad until the tire performance dropped. Not being familiar with them, I didn't know how to manage them correctly. In any case, I thank Yamaha for giving me this opportunity and I'm available whenever they need me again."