Our ride today was only about 200km but we had some very important business to do before we reached our accommodation - we needed to purchase tickets to the MotoGP at the Sachsenring! We are staying in a town called Neukirchen, about 30km from the track in a lovely hotel called Zum Anger.

Buying the MotoGP tickets turned out to be a bit of an adventure. About 100km into our ride it started to rain and was still drizzling when we got to the track. We found the ticket office and thank goodness one of the security guards spoke a little English because the sales-girl spoke none. We ended up, after the second attempt at making ourselves understood, with tickets for T8, a grandstand with a great view of several sections of the track. We are happy campers!

When we headed down to breakfast we discovered that the Tasca Moto2 Racing Team are also staying here. Simone Corse #24 and Federico Fuligni #21 are their riders. Saw Federico having his photo taken with the owner of the hotel but I could only get a couple of photos of some of the team. After a great breakfast (included in our room rate) we headed off but Greg NEEDED to wash the bike first! A good plan as it was really grubby after the rain of the last couple of days - clean Tigers are much nicer to ride!

Parking near the circuit was easy and we just followed the rest of the crowd to the entrance gate. We checked out the merchandising tents, of course VR46 was the first one we came to. We wandered around to our seats to check them out and watched the last bit of Practice 1 for Moto2. There was a bit of a break before the next round of practice so we walked around checking out the bikes on display - Greg says he couldn't pick one but I saw him looking closely at a few. After the purchase of a sticker for the bike we found seats at the start/finish straight to watch Moto3 and MotoGp Practice 2 - Jack Miller did really well finishing 8th, only 0.612s behind Jorge Lorenzo who was fastest. We walked back around to our seats to watch Moto2 practice before heading back to our hotel for dinner and a cold beer in the beer garden.

Day two we were able to park even closer to the circuit so our walk was shorter - a good thing as the day was a scorcher. We watched a bit of the practice sessions, Remy Gardner had a great lap and was at the top of the list for 30 minutes but ended up 11th fastest in this practice session. We then went to our seats to watch qualifying. Jorge Martin was on pole for Moto3, Moto 2 was Enea Pasini and Marc Marquez for MotoGP. We headed back to the hotel tired and very hot for dinner and a beer.

Day three was not supposed to be as hot as yesterday but even so we decided to stay in the shade until race time at 11am. The Moto 3 race was the usual swapping of the lead which always makes for great watching; Jorge Martin was first, followed by Marco Bezzecchi and John McPhee, nine of the starters did not finish the race. With only 30 minutes until Moto2 we decided to stay in our seats rather than fight the crowds for lunch. The race was won by Brad Binder with Joan Mir 2nd and a first podium finish for Luca Marini in third (Valentino Rossi's half brother). Remy Gardner finished a very credible 11th. Then it was time for the big boys! After passing Lorenzo, Marques broke away and was never really challenged for the lead. Rossi and Vinales completed the podium. Jack Miller was hindered early in the race by a crash but still managed to come from the back to finish 14th. Today was the 9th time in a row Marquez has started from Pole Position and also won the race at the Sachsenring across all three classes. Marquez now leads the championship - 46 points ahead of #46!

Some observations from the Sachsenring:

*Everything ran on time

*The toilets were the cleanest we have ever seen at a MotoGP

*The variety of food was amazing and very tasty

*Food and drink prices were not overly inflated - affordable.

*Yellow smoke does not smell very nice.

*Cigarette smokers in the grandstands - this should be banned!

We have 5 days until we drop off the bike and head home. We are ready!