No warning for crash but Redding starting to get comfortable

Scott Redding came away disappointed to have crashed out of the German Grand Prix but started to show progress on the Marc VDS Honda.

Redding has endured a miserable year with the highlight being a second row start at COTA but more often than not he’s been midpack and struggling. At the Sachsenring he had shown flashes of potential but ultimately crashed at the last corner on the opening lap.

“I just went in a little bit higher speed than we had,” said Redding afterwards. “On releasing the brake I just lost the front. I don’t really know why. It felt like tyre temperature or something and if it was a right corner I would have accepted it, but there are a lot of lefts and then at the last corner it closes. It was a bit strange. I didn’t feel any bite from the tyre and it didn’t give any feedback, it was just gone. I didn’t go into the corner thinking ‘I’m not going to make it’. I turned in and was looking at the exit and the next thing I know I’m on my side. That was that.”

Sachsenring saw Redding set fast times on longer stints in the opening session and FP4 and while he was able to take advantage of following the Repsol Honda’s for his fastest times this was also the first time that he felt comfortable when trailing them rather than feeling on the limit and losing ground.

“It’s just really frustrating when you see the lap times from the other guys and I could’ve been nicely in the top ten, fighting with that second or third group, at least for a bit, and then see what happened. But I didn’t have the chance to prove myself, again. Normally in the race I’m struggling to get the tyres to work, the only place I felt good was Barcelona and there I held onto them for some time, other times I just had no front grip. I thought in this race that ‘good rhythm, good pace and just let it work. It will work’. I thought that but the next thing I’m down.”