Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Saxony · DE
A short, undulating circuit in Saxony that hosts the German motorcycle Grand Prix, known for its long left-handers and a steep drop into the final sector.
The Sachsenring is one of the shortest circuits on the MotoGP calendar and one of the most demanding. Ten of its thirteen corners turn left, which punishes the right side of the tyre with disuse and the left with heat, and the descent through the Omega and down to the last corners is fast, blind and close to the barriers.
It sits in the hills above Hohenstein-Ernstthal between Chemnitz and Zwickau. Accommodation is spread across those towns rather than clustered at the circuit, and the race weekend fills them.
Racing at the Sachsenring is far older than the permanent circuit. The first Badberg-Viereck-Rennen was run on 26 May 1927 over an 8.7 km course of public roads through Hohenstein-Ernstthal itself, and the circuit took the name Sachsenring only in 1937.
Between the wars it drew crowds that are hard to imagine now. The German motorcycle Grand Prix was held here in 1934, 1935, 1937 and 1939, and the European Grand Prix in 1936 and 1938, each of those two drawing more than 200,000 spectators. Racing resumed in 1949, and a unified German championship meeting in 1950 drew over 400,000.
The road course was eventually abandoned for safety, and the permanent circuit that hosts the modern MotoGP round opened in 1996 on ground beside the old route.
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