This was not a classic MotoGP race by any stretch, but a crowd of 141,000 watched Casey Stoner (Ducati) record his seventh win from 12 races as John Hopkins (Suzuki) finished a distant second and Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) managed a fighting third place here at Brno.
With a 26-degree ambient temperature and a track at a moderate 35-degrees, the lights went out to signal the start of this 22-lap race. Stoner, from pole, immediately set about his task, cleanly leading the field into turn one.
By the end of lap one it was apparent that Stoner was unlikely to be troubled. Hopkins similarly, was edging out a gap over third-placed Hayden and by the end of lap two the leaders were turning in lap times in the low to mid 1m 58 second bracket – times the others found hard to match.
On lap five Stoner enjoyed a 1.1 second lead over Hopkins who in turn held Hayden and fourth-placed Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) at bay quite comfortably. The action was all downfield as a fight for fifth place erupted between Loris Capirossi (Ducati), Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) and Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki).
On lap nine Rossi edged past Capirossi for fifth, but the former World Champion would shortly have to surrender that place to Vermeulen who had got into a rapid rhythm, carving his way past Capirossi on lap 12 and then taking Rossi on lap 14. On lap 16 Capirossi would retake Rossi for sixth.
Even de Puniet was in on the action and although he tried all he knew to get on terms with Rossi, he would remain just over half a second behind at the flag. By lap 18 the leaders were spread out along the 5.403km of Brno by these margins: Stoner by 4.7 seconds from Hopkins, who had 6.8 seconds over Hayden, who in turn bettered Dani in fourth by 2.3 seconds. It was not quite a procession – but nor was it a riveting race.
Perhaps the most significant feature of this weekend in the Czech Republic is the state of the World Championship points table with six rounds left to run. Stoner now has a 60 point lead over Rossi with 246 points to Rossi’s 186. Dani Pedrosa sits third with 168, while Suzuki riders Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins have 124 points apiece.
MotoGP Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 3rd.
“Well I’m pretty happy with the podium and I feel like we’ve done a decent job this weekend. Yesterday afternoon we made quite a big change with the front forks and I liked the results a lot. When I got into third position on lap two of the race I was thinking ‘now you’ve got to get on his back wheel’ and for about three corners it was looking pretty good. But then I got onto the straight, looked up and realized that really I was just dreaming. So I just kept my rhythm and I really feel like I got the best out of the bike, myself and the tyres today - I don’t feel like I left much on the table. So thanks to my team because those guys did a good job. Hopefully we can keep this form going and get a little bit stronger from now on. I’d also like to dedicate this podium to Cedric Laprael, the parts guy in the Repsol Honda Team, who isn’t here this weekend because he had a parachuting accident during the summer break. Get well Cedric. The team’s going to stay for a couple of days testing with some new parts from Honda and a lot of Michelin tyres so we can to try and bridge the gap to these front guys. “
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 4th.
“Fourth position is the maximum we could achieve today and at least I’ve closed the gap a little to second in the championship which is somewhat positive. Still, I’m frustrated after the race today because I didn’t feel like we could use all the potential of our package. For the first few laps I couldn’t get enough heat into the rear tyre which meant I wasn’t able to maintain my position and I was passed by a few riders. Then after four or five laps I could feel more heat in the tyre but by this time the leaders had gone, and Nicky too. I pushed as hard as I could for the whole race but the lap times just weren’t there and my pace was slowing steadily. I’m frustrated because we haven’t made the improvements in the package I was hoping for. We must work hard during the test over the next two days. Obviously, to fight for the title is very difficult, but I’m not going to give up this season. We have to try to keep the third place in the championship and at the same time try to go forward into second. “
Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 10th.
“It seems a little strange to say it but I’m satisfied with tenth. The team has done a lot of hard work this weekend and I think we achieved as much as possible. Now we have a two day test. I was fighting with Guintoli and Elias and this was much more fun than riding alone – there was a lot of overtaking. On the engine side we are now in a good situation, but we still need to optimize chassis and tyres. ”
Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 11th.
“I was very tired at the finish of the race, it was much tougher than I expected, all the direction changes on this track didn’t help. For me it was very important to come back in time to race at Brno and I made it. Considering my condition 11th place is not so bad. The bike was very good but in my condition I could not push as hard as I needed to in order to test the latest modifications to the bike. ”
Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 14th.
“All weekend we’ve had front-end chattering issues. We tried to fix this problem in warm-up this morning by trying a harder front tyre and we had a little less chattering but after few laps the problem returned and this meant that in the race we couldn’t push hard. It’s clear to us that the engine is smoother and has more potential, but with this turning problem we cannot use this potential. Tomorrow is a very important test for us to solve the problem of chatter and therefore find better turning ability and corner speed for the last part of the season when we really need to be getting improved results. ”
Kurtis Roberts, KR212V: 15th.
“For some reason the thing bogged down off the line. I’d got a good jump, and it just died. That made life difficult, because instead of being able to pass (Makoto) Tamada and (Ivan) Silva in one lap and be done with them, it took a long time. Their bikes are so much faster right now than ours: I’d set ‘em up and set ‘em up, then block pass them, and they’d get me back on the drive out of the corner or up the hill. It just frustrates you. It took four or five laps when I should have been with Nakano up ahead. I struggled with tyres after that. I was catching Nakano, and I could tell he was having the same issues I was. Then it started chattering and sliding much worse. We just did all we could do to get 15th. We can only go round the corners so fast. We are still missing out on acceleration and top speed. Hopefully, some engine upgrades will come along soon. ”
Chuck Aksland - Team Manager Team Roberts.
“We’re all hoping to get some new engine bits eventually, but it sounds like the tyre / chassis combination was the biggest set-back today. Kurtis said he didn’t really have too much grip, losing the front and pushing the thing around quite a bit, and spinning a lot. Hopefully the weather will co-operate and we’ll get to test some tyres tomorrow or Tuesday. We need to find out which constructions and ompounds work best with our bike. Things have moved on since we have last been able to test some tyres and hopefully we can find a combination that works better then what we have now. We’d also like the opportunity to do some more back to back with the two chassis we have. There are differences between them, and the newer one should be better but we have not yet had a good chance to confirm that this is the case. The motor is what it is, but we should be able to improve our lap times by working on chassis and tyres. ”
Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: Marco did not race due to a trapped nerve.
“It was frustrating having to watch the race from the pit wall, especially having worked really hard over the summer to recover from the broken ankle. My neck has been in some pain ever since Laguna Seca but I never thought it would stop me from racing here at Brno. Unfortunately on Friday morning I had a hernia between the C5 and C6 vertebrae and I lost all strength in my left arm and hand. Now my only thought is to get fit as soon as possible and make sure I am ready to race again at Misano. ”
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