Friday, July 15, 2011

Riders put through their paces on hovercrafts



As part of the preparations for this weekend’s eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland a group of riders took to the start/finish straight of the Sachsenring track on board hovercrafts on Thursday afternoon, with varying degrees of success and a great deal of enjoyment.

MotoGP stars Nicky Hayden and Héctor Barberá, Moto2 Championship leader Stefan Bradl and fellow intermediate class rider Alex de Angelis, and 125cc local heroes Sandro Cortese and Jonas Folger all took it in turns to jump on board with World and European Hovercraft Champion Michele Scanavino as they flew down the track in front of a large crowd of enthusiastic fans, with fellow World Championship Klaus Bönighausen also giving tips to the riders.

Hayden, Barberá, Bradl, De Angelis and Cortese all then took individual turns as they attempted to master the machine. Barberá and Bradl appeared to take to the controls with the most ease, whilst Cortese and De Angelis found the hovercraft a little harder to get to grips with as they both experienced minor crashes.

Speaking after his turn Hayden admitted that the hovercraft was not so easy to control and stated his aims for a strong weekend at a track where he has previously stepped onto the podium on four occasions, whilst Bradl and Cortese both underlined their intentions of putting on a strong display in front of their home crowd this weekend.

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