As the paddock packs everything up to head to the summer break, another amazing race took place on Sunday at the Sachsenring for the Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, closing the first half of an already exciting 2024 season. After the disappointment from the sprint, Pedro Acosta fought hard for a much deserved 7th place, while Augusto Fernandez finished inside the top 15 for the second round in a row, with P14.

After his crash towards the end of the sprint, Pedro Acosta was eager to return racing on Sunday with the clear objective to head to the summer break on a sweet note. And he just did that on Sunday at the Sachsenring. Lights out at 14:00 local time (GMT+2) to wrap up round 9, and Pedro Acosta took a similar start than yesterday, trying to make his space within the busy first corners. He dropped to P13 first, and we saw him exit lap 1 in P14 just behind Marco Bezzecchi and Jack Miller. As he settled into his race pace, he progressively moved up the ranks, passing through Fabio Quartarao, then Bezzecchi, and a mistake from Maverick Vinales gave him the opportunity to make a top 10 entrance at lap 7, behind fellow Pierer Mobility rider Brad Binder. As we entered the tenth lap (1/3 of the race), Jorge Martin had made quite the gap at the front of the race, and Pedro made a move on Brad Binder who he was putting pressure on, and next target was Raul Fernandez, who had dropped to 8th from his front row start. As ten laps remained, Pedro was still in 9th, with Binder putting more and more pressure on his future teammate. But the young shark had worked hard to close the gap to Raul Fernandez, and finally he made a move on him in lap 21. The two touched each other as it was advantageous to Acosta. Soon after, Brad Binder overtook both Fernandez and Acosta with four laps to go, and Pedro was in P8 trying to defend his position on Bezzecchi who was doing a great end. The late mistake of race leader Jorge Martin offered Acosta the 7th position. Strong result for the rookie at the Sachsenring, who closes his first half of his season in the premier class sixth in the championship, with 110 points.

From P15 on the grid, Augusto Fernandez held on to his grid position at the race start as he found himself behind teammate Pedro Acosta who had lost a few positions.  The following lap he was overtaken by Jack Miller, with both Pierer Mobility riding at similar pace at the race start. Augusto progressively settled into his race pace, with Takaaki Nakagami behind. On lap 7, a mistake from Vinales saw the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 rider make his entrance in the point-scoring positions, and a few laps later he was in P14 as Fabio Di Giannantonio dropped before retiring. Patiently waiting behind Miller, Augusto finally made a move on the Australian on lap 13 to move up to 13th, with Fabio Quartararo ahead, with a quite significant gap to catch up on though. Twenty laps down, ten to go, Augusto was still in P13, but Vinales was coming back from the make after his earlier mistake, and Fernandez could not go much more as the #12 went through on lap 21, with Miller following. Augusto Fernandez saw the checkered flag in P14, but was unfortunately handed a sixteen second penalty afterwards. He finishes 16th.

That’s nine rounds down of the 2024 MotoGP™ World Championship. The second half of the season, set to be more exciting than ever, awaits us in Silverstone in the United Kingdom on the first weekend of Augusto, but before that, let’s all enjoy a good summer break!