For the third event in succession, PBMUK rider James Ellison scored World Championship points as the Sachsenring circuit in Germany hosted the eighth round of the MotoGP World Championship.

Aboard the Claiming Rules Team (CRT) specification Aprilia ART, the 31-year-old from Kendal was feeling much better following on from his crash at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone three weeks ago which affected his performance at Assen last week although he did score points on both of those occasions.

Ellison impressed during Friday's wet free practice session to set fastest CRT time but couldn't manage to maintain that pace when it dried out and eventually settled for 15th position after today's race to move up a position in the championship standings.

James Ellison:

"It was another tough one if I'm being truthful. We were really consistent on lap times and just 0.9 seconds off the best CRT lap and 2.8 seconds off the fastest lap set by Dani Pedrosa. My start was good but because I was so far back on grid, it was always going to be difficult to get away with the leading CRT bikes. I hung in with Pasini, Edwards and Hernandez for a long time but just started to lose touch at half race distance. I was pushing so hard to catch Hernandez right until the end but it just wasn't enough. To come away with another championship point and one place higher in the table is a positive and so is the information we have gathered on the longer chassis we have been testing for the last three races. The other ARTs have been running a stiffer swingarm for the last three races which improves the rear grip so I'm hoping when we get this we can close the gap back up to the leaders. The team as usual worked their bits off so big thanks to them for staying positive and getting behind me."

Results

1, Dani Pedrosa SPA (Repsol Honda Team)
2, Jorge Lorenzo SPA (Yamaha Factory Racing)
3, Andrea Dovizioso ITA (Monster Yamaha Tech 3)
4, Ben Spies USA (Yamaha Factory Racing)
5, Stefan Bradl GER (LCR Honda MotoGP)
6, Valentino Rossi ITA (Ducati Team)
15, James Ellison GBR (Paul Bird Motorsport)

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