Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/345566
48 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 JULY 2014 Sport MOTOGP FORMULA 1 BASKETBALL Record breaker Marquez takes pole with fastest ever Sachsenring lap A 1'20.937 effort from Marquez gave him pole by just under 0.3s from Repsol Honda colleague Pedrosa who went down at turn 1 with three minutes remaining. The rapid lap time for Marquez broke Casey Stoner's six year old best pole lap record of 1'21.067 from 2008. The home fans were delighted with Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) registering a 1'21.340 lap, as the German qualified third having initially been on provisional pole five minutes into the session. The second row, meanwhile features a strong Yamaha pres- ence with Open-equipped Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Rac- ing) placing his Forward-Yama- ha machine ahead of the factory Movistar Yamaha MotoGP ma- chines of Jorge Lorenzo and Val- entino Rossi on the grid. Andrea Iannone (Pramac Rac- ing) impressed again in seventh, ahead of Pol Espargaro (Mon- ster Yamaha Tech3) and Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) on row three. Smith suffered a fourth crash of the weekend in Q2 but was not hurt. Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) was tenth, whilst Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar) complete the fourth row having come through from Q1. Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) missed out on a Q2 ride hav- ing crashed at high speed at turn 11, taking a big tumble through the gravel at the end of Q1. Crutchlow was unhurt and quickly went back to his pit box for a debrief despite initial- ly looking quite shaken by the accident. Starting Grid - 2014 German MotoGP Grand Prix Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M. Marquez Repsol Honda 01:20.937 10 2. D. Pedrosa Repsol Honda 01:21.233 7 3. S. Bradl LCR 01:21.340 10 4. A. Espargaro Forward 01:21.376 9 5. J. Lorenzo Yamaha 01:21.508 10 6. V. Rossi Yamaha 01:21.651 10 7. A. Iannone Pramac 01:21.679 10 8. P. Espargaro Tech 3 01:21.771 9 9. B. Smith Tech 3 01:21.794 6 10. A. Bautista Gresini 01:21.906 10 11. A. Dovizioso Ducati 01:22.120 9 12. N. Hayden Aspar 01:22.647 11 Marc Marquez SERGIO Pérez says Formula 1 needs more winning teams to avoid fans be- ing turned off, following Mercedes' dominant start to the season that has seen the outfit triumph in eight out of nine races. In an attempt to make the sport more entertaining, standing restarts and titanium skidblocks – aimed at producing sparks – have been rubber- stamped by the FIA for introduction from the 2015 campaign. But Force India driver Pérez believes that the focus should be on levelling the playing field, through budget re- strictions and clearer technical regu- lations, to give more outfits a chance of competing at the front. "I think Formula 1 is looking for a way to make things more entertain- ing, and I think the best way to make it entertaining is to give opportunities to more teams to fight for victories," Pérez said. "We all know who's going to win on Sunday, 99 per cent. Of course, every single driver would love to be in the position of Lewis [Hamilton] and Nico [Rosberg]. But as a fan I don't like that because it gets boring. "I like to see a couple of teams fight- ing for the victory, and I think you can do that by reducing the budget gap [between the teams] and also estab- lishing a bit more the rules and what you can do on the cars." While seven different drivers won the opening seven races in 2012, only eight have triumphed since. "In the future it would be great to have Force India, Williams, Sauber... fighting against a team like Mer- cedes," Pérez went on to comment. "I'm not saying that Force India has to be a World Champion, but it would be great if they had the opportunity to at least fight for a big result, such as one race victory or something like that. "It's a big boost, not only for the team but also for Formula 1, to have these kind of results." Pérez says 'boring' F1 needs more winners Andorra win the 14th FIBA European Championship for Small Countries Sergio Pérez ANDORRA are the winners of the 14th FIBA European Championship for Small Countries after winning against a strong Maltese side 66-63 in today's final. A wonderful run in the third quarter was not enough for Malta as Andorra opened very strong in the last period. For Malta however this was the best result ever in the competition after two bronze medals in 2010 and 2012 and the third consecutive medal. Malta opened a five point lead by the fifth minute of the first quarter 12-7 but Andorra recov- ered thanks to Xavier Galera's three pointers and they closed the session ahead 20-19. In the second quarter, Michael Naudi and Darryl Jackson gave the lead to Malta but Andorra replied again this time from Rafael Casals who gave them a six point advantage 34-28. Andorra maintained the same distance till halftime 41-34. The third quarter opened with another Galera trey for a 10 point lead for Andorra 41-34. Here there was a strong reaction from the Maltese side with a strong 13-2 run with a Jackson trey and baskets from Sam- uel Deguara, Omar Said and Tevin Falzon. Falzon gave the lead to Mal- ta with a basket in the start of the seventh minute 48-46. Colom lev- elled the teams again before a Said three pointer in the last 31 second which saw Malta starting the final period 3 points ahead 51-48. In the first minutes of the last session An- dorra made a decisive 9-0 run to go six points ahead 57-51. The Maltese players fought hard to get closer to the winners but despite the points from Jackson, Falzon and Deguara Andorra remained in con- trol to win their second consecutive title 66-63. Jackson netted 19 points for Malta together with 11 from Fal- zon and Deguara. At the end of the competition, Jackson and Deguara were both nominated in the tournaments top five after ending the best scor- ers with an average of 22.8 and 18.8 points per game respectively. Samuel Deguara who won the fair play award, also ended as the best rebounder with 15.0 rebounds per game and Steve Schembri was the second best assist man with 2.5 as- sists per game. Finally, Darryl Jackson also won the tournament's MVP which is se- lected by the coaches of all national teams.