The Motorcycle World Championship gets backs to activity this weekend in the Czech Republic.
Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa reach Brno leading the standings; Fonsi Nieto is second, three points behind Poggiali
After what we’ve been able to see until now and considering the fact that there are still seven races until the end of the season, this Championship will probably be one of the most contended in the three categories. In MotoGP Valentino Rossi is still the man to be beaten and the reference in the class, but the latest performances of the Spaniard Sete Gibernau have given the Honda rider the possibility to be fighting for the title as well. With seven races left for the end of the 2003 season, Valentino Rossi has a 29 points advantage over the second classified rider, Sete Gibernau. Rossi, who has been on the podium in the last fifteen races, knows that it is very important to score as many points as possible in every race. And while the Italian Repsol rider is getting ready for the final battle for the title, his team-mate Nicky Hayden arrives in Brno in high spirits and very optimistic; especially because of his performance in Germany, which showed him that he is getting closer to the top and also because the tests carried out in Brno approximately one month ago helped him to gather experience and references on the circuit he is going to be racing this weekend. Hayden, in constant progression, will have in Brno an excellent opportunity to keep on improving and evolving. And if in the premier class Valentino Rossi, is the man to be beaten and the outstanding leader of the classification, in the 250cc class it is Fonsi Nieto who, despite a bad start of the season, is taking charge of the category. His second place in Germany, despite an off-track during the race, his latest performances and the weak race of the leader Poggiali on the Sachsenring, helped Fonsi to spend his holiday rest with the confidence of having recovered from the bad start of the season, being only three points away from the leadership.
Both for him and his team, the season has just restarted. And while Fonsi is looking forward to the battle for the Championship, his team-mate Toni Elias is looking for a way to solve his problems with the bike’s settings. His seventh place in Germany shows clearly that Elias didn’t have a good performance. But he has already shown several times this season, in addition to his two victories, that if his team and himself manage to find a good set-up, Elias will be a rider to watch closely in Brno, a circuit Jorge Martínez Aspar’s pupil likes a lot. And while Elias is trying to improve his results and Nieto to take over the leadership, Sebastián Porto keeps on working on his Honda to turn it into a competitive machine and finally clinch a podium that is being so hard to get this season. Porto took the pole in Germany, but he didn’t get on the podium, finishing fourth. After a well deserved rest in his home country, Argentina, the brave YPF rider gets back to activity with the aim of getting on the podium and continue with the evolution of his bike. For young Joan Olivé and Héctor Faubel, Brno will be, after the well deserved summer break, a new opportunity to move on and keep on learning in their class.
In the minor category, Dani Pedrosa arrives in Brno with an advantage of twenty points over his immediate follower, the Italian rider Stefano Perugini. Dani Pedrosa, who finished second last year in an extremely contended race in Brno, will try to increase his advantage in the overall standings on a track he likes a lot. And while Pedrosa is leading the championship thinking about the title, Pablo Nieto and Héctor Barberá take every race as a new opportunity to fight for the victory or the podium. Fifth in Germany, Nieto will continue in Brno his quest for a victory. His team-mate, Barberá, who already knows what it means to be standing on the highest step of the podium, will have to avoid a repetition of what happened in Germany at the race start, in order to be able to fight once again for the victory on a circuit he managed to do his best race last season, finishing fourth.
