RaceRevo

Jorge Lorenzo took an impressive seventh win of the season in Brno with a clinical performance that saw him led from the first lap to the chequered flag. In doing so he becomes only the third premier-class rider in history to finish in the top two at the opening ten races of the season.

Despite surrendering pole position for the first time in six races, some bold moves from the Spaniard around the first two turns saw him takes the lead and he looked in superb form on his Yamaha M1, romping away from the pack.

His compatriot Dani Pedrosa kept close on his heels for the first few laps but every time he tried to close the gap Lorenzo responded and by the tenth lap he was a second clear. From then on he was unchallenged and crossed the line 5.494 seconds ahead of Pedrosa to take the 33rd win of his career and his 12th in MotoGP.

Pedrosa’s 2nd place was welcomed as he bounced back from his Laguna Seca disappointment, and now aims to build on the result.

In third place is Ducati’s Casey Stoner, his consistency of finishing in the top three continued with the Australian’s fifth straight podium of the campaign.

A strong weekend concluded in fine style for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team with Ben Spies storming to a superb fourth position after starting from the front row of the grid for the first time in his MotoGP career.

Meanwhile world champion Valentino Rossi had a disappointing race. He dropped from fifth on the grid to eighth by the end of the first lap before rallying to pass Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden to move to fifth by lap six, but from then on he could make no further improvement and rode a lonely race to the flag.

In the championship race, another maximum-points haul for Lorenzo leaves the young Mallorcan 77 points clear of Pedrosa in the standings, with eight rounds remaining.

Cardion AB Grand Prix Ceske Republicky was watched by nearly 150,000 people at trackside.

The next round of the MotoGP World Championship will require another crossing of the Atlantic, as the field prepares to line-up for the Indianapolis Grand Prix in America on Sunday 29th August.

Lorenzo playing a round of golf to celebrate his win

Jorge Lorenzo : “After my problems yesterday and the crash I didn’t expect this today, I thought it would be much more of a struggle. Once I got to the front I expected Dani to come with me and I knew it was my moment and that I had to push as much as possible. I thought he would try to overtake me but I felt good, pushed hard and little by little I was able to lose him. I know I said I was riding for the championship now and that’s still true but when there’s the chance to win I have to take it! To take my seventh win in one season is fantastic, thank you to all of my team for such a good job after we had difficulties yesterday. Tomorrow we have an important test which we hope will help us in the last part of the championship and then we go to Indianapolis, a track that I love.”

Dani Pedrosa : “It’s good to be back on the podium after the crash at the last race at Laguna Seca so I’m happy about this. My start was good and I was in first place through the first corner but in the first left-hander I was a little bit too concerned about my tyre temperature and braked too early, which allowed Ben and Jorge to get past. When I was in second place behind Jorge again I was trying as hard as possible to stay close, which I could do for a few laps, but for some reason I wasn’t quite able to go as fast as yesterday and though I tried to adjust my riding to improve this Jorge was gradually able to open the gap.”

Casey Stoner : “It’s more points and we are dragging ourselves back up the leader board. We were a long way down at one point but got back up to third, but we didn’t make up any ground on the front two… we haven’t been since the beginning of the season. We started the weekend a little slow and gradually got more speed. Yesterday afternoon I thought we had something at the end of qualifying because the bike started good but not great, so I really wanted to check it in warm up but that was wet so we went into the race a little bit in the unknown. We were quite lucky really. The start of the race was bad because I was closing the front and there was too much weight on the front, but as the fuel weight came down the bike started to work a lot better and I felt more comfortable and was able to improve my lap times and position. So we’re happy with another podium but feel we should have been pushing more towards the front this weekend.”

Ben Spies : “I got a good start and was staying right with Jorge and Dani for a few laps and had a comfortable pace. But after about lap seven I starting having problems with the front that I hadn’t experienced all weekend. It’s a shame because while I know I definitely didn’t have anything to fight Jorge with because he is riding so well, maybe I could have stayed close to Dani. I’m not saying I’d have beaten him but I’d have been closer to put up a challenge. I had one second on Casey when I started having the problems but I had to slow my pace quite a bit and that was a bit frustrating because it meant he caught me quite quickly. I couldn’t run his speed so when he passed me I didn’t worry about trying to run with him. I’m not upset though because without that small problem I could have easily battled for the podium. I’d have loved the podium to give me a big lift before going home to Indianapolis, but I’m really happy with my recent performances and once again I was the top satellite team rider and I can’t be unhappy with fourth place.”

Valentino Rossi : “We are really disappointed tonight because we had hoped to do a good race and I was confident that I could challenge at the front today. It seemed everything was right and yesterday we had a good pace but today we just weren’t as fast and I couldn’t stay with the leaders. We are sad but tomorrow we will have the chance to test and try to understand what went wrong today, which will help us to be in better shape in Indianapolis.”

Race Results :

1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 43’22.638
2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team + 5.494
3. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team + 11.426
4. Ben Spies (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 13.723
5. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team + 17.930
6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team + 26.815
7. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 33.396
8. Marco Melandri (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 39.406
9. Hector Barbera (SPA) Aspar Team + 39.639
10. Randy de Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP + 40.893
11. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 42.032
12. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) Pramac Green Team + 47.091
13. Alex de Angelis (ITA) Interwetten Honda MotoGP + 51.368

NOT CLASSIFIED :

Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +1 Lap
Mika Kallio (FIN) Pramac Green Team +15 Lap
Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda Team +16 Lap
Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +21 Lap

Photo : Fiat Yamaha Team / Rizla Suzuki / MotoGP

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