Taking his first win of 2010 and also first on a Yamaha machine, Ken De Dycker dominated the German Grand Prix with two moto wins, giving AXO the first GP win of the season.

De Dycker managed to take his first season’s overall victory in Germany, where he won both motos after hard fights with his rivals on the day of his 26th birthday. Taking an early lead in heat one, De Dycker pulled away to win with a nine second advantage from Philippaerts. In moto two instead the Belgian had to work his way up to first and was chased by Cairoli until the chequered flag, which he crossed just two tenths of a second before the Italian.

But it’s not finished, as at Silverastone Bradley Smith had an excellent race, opening up the three race back-to-back sequence with a podium at his home Grand Prix. After two near-misses, Smith was finally able to get a rostrum, courtesy of an outstanding ride onboard his Aprilia. The Briton was part of the chasing group pursuing the two leaders. With sixteen more points to his name, Smith is closing in again on the leadership of the championship.

In Moto2, Julian Simon clinched his second podium spot of the season so far: as the chequered flag was waved, the Spaniard was third, a position that takes him up to fourth in the championship. Simon gained a place after starting fourth on the grid and went for the win at the British track, joining up with the lead group. He led for the first time on lap five, but was overtaken again and decided to wait for an opportunity. He was unable to pass the top two but in the end held out for third place.

The word to our riders…

Ken De Dycker: “I always expect to do well and hope for a good result and it came here because of hard work after the Grand Prix of France when we tested a lot and now we seem to be going in the right direction. This was the best birthday present I could give myself! Both motos had some good racing and Tony came close to me at the end of the second one. I was feeling tired at that moment and wanted the race to be over when I jumped past and saw ‘3 minutes’ on the clock! I knew I would have to dig deep. He couldn’t get near enough and it was exciting. The track was not easy but I tried to stay relaxed and saw a few places where I could overtake; my goal then was to get close enough to be able to attack in those places. I hope this is the point that my season will turn around and although the next GPs won’t be easy I can now feel more confident and want to be strong until the end of the season.”

Bradley Smith: "I am delighted, because today I had a fantastic feeling with the bike for the entire race. I was strong early on and tried to squeeze everything out of the bike in order to get up front. I admit that on the last few laps I was riding beyond my limit, but that is the way that one has to work in order to get on the podium. The Spanish riders are in great form at the moment, and it is difficult to beat them. Getting a home podium is fantastic, and I have to thank the team for their work over the weekend because they and Aprilia got me here. I am very happy with a first rostrum of the year, especially here at home. After five races we are back to the same level as last year, but we can't drop our guard because we have two back-to-back races coming up and have to continue picking up points for the title fight."

Julian Simon: "This third place is a good result, but I really wanted to win. This morning in the warm up and in the first few laps of the race was when I could tell that I had a good pace going, and when I got to the front I was confident in my chances of victory. When Corti fell on the last lap I thought that it was in the bag, but Cluzel put a clean pass on me and my strategy went out of the window. I just had to hope for a mistake from Luthi or Cluzel, but there was no space to overtake. I am happy in any case, because the bike has improved a lot and we have almost completely eliminated the chattering problem. This is one of the best results that we have had with this bike, so I head to Assen confident of a good race using similar settings to here. Today gives me motivation to continue working in the same way, and I have a hunger for the win now. I have learnt a lot here and I am convinced that we are going to continue getting results like this and work our way up the table."