Round eight of the MotoGP World Championship took place at Sachsenring in Germany this weekend and it proved ultimately disappointing for the Penrith-based PBM MotoGP Team.

After a pair of finishes in 19th and 22nd place for Colombian Yonny Hernandez and Ulsterman Michael Laverty respectively two weeks ago at Assen, the pair were hoping to add to both their own World Championship points scores and to improve their CRT and Manufacturer placings.

The weekend started off on a promising note as both Hernandez, from Medellin, on the Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored Aprilia ART and Laverty, from Toome in County Antrim, on the Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored PBM machine showed good pace in Free Practice to both end up in the top 16.

Despite adding a crash apiece to the numerous fallers over the weekend, the PBM duo excelled in Qualifying to end up with Laverty in sixth to record his best of the campaign with Hernandez in seventh going into the 30-lap race.

Hernandez's cause wasn't helped when he crashed out during warm up but worse was to follow in the race when on the opening lap, he crashed for the third time in the weekend to end his hopes of increasing his points tally.

Meanwhile, Laverty gamely battled on and gradually climbed from 18th place where he occupied for most of the race to 16th at the flag, in another race devoid of attrition, to record his seventh finish of the season and in doing so just missed out on adding to the points he scored at Jerez earlier in the season.

Hernandez still occupies 19th overall in the MotoGP World Championship standings with Laverty maintaining his 21st in his debut season. In the Claiming Rules Teams (CRT) class, Hernandez still holds sixth with Laverty in eighth whereas PBM occupy eighth in the Constructors Championship and 12th in the Teams Championship in their debut season with their brand new British-built machine.


Paul Bird, Team Owner:

"A bit of a disappointing weekend if we are being honest. We had high hopes of some good results as the track seemed to suit our bikes and I was pleased we qualified well. It seems that Yonny has the speed but we just need to find a way of stopping him crashing, maybe some glue on the seat would help. He committed the cardinal sin of crashing in warm up too and that has put us on the back foot for Laguna Seca. Michael continued his good progress on the PBM machine and was unlucky to miss out on the points but we really need to start raising our game as you look at what other CRTs are doing and that's where we need to be aiming for."



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