Third victory of the season for Sebastián Porto in the Czech Republic
Barros, Hayden and Xaus crashed out in MotoGP; Pablo Nieto, fourth, out of the podium after an excellent recovery
With Sebastian Porto as best Repsol rider, the race of the 250cc class was one of the most exciting races of the season so far, both with regard to the sporting aspects and the unstable weather conditions. The race started with Porto in the lead, Fonsi Nieto with a bad start – 8th after the first lap despite starting second – and a group following the Argentinean Repsol rider made up by De Puniet, Pedrosa, Aoyama and De Angelis. Further in the back, Fonsi was fighting for the sixth place with Rolfo and Elias. But the rain threatening to fall over the track soon struck the normal development of the race. It started to drizzle on the Czech track from the second lap, although it wasn’t until the fifth lap, when De Angelis, who was leading the race, held up his hand to indicate the Clerk of the Course that it was raining on some sections of the track and that the race should be stopped. But the Race Director did not take the decision to stop the race and Porto used those moments of confusion to open a small gap of less than a second.
The race continued and some laps later, with Aoyama already in the back and the group of four is still in the lead; Porto, De Angelis, De Puniet and Pedrosa carefully controlling each other. Meanwhile, Fonsi was loosing positions and was riding close to Bataille, fighting for the eleventh place, until in lap ten of twenty, Fonsi crashed together with Bataille in a track section that was wet due to the intermittent rain. Five laps later Pedrosa and Porto touched each other sending the Repsol rider back to the fourth place, while Pedrosa started his attack on the lead of the race. With Pedrosa escaping, De Angelis second, De Puniet third and Porto fourth, the rain showed up again and once again the leading rider, this time Pedrosa, held his hand up to indicate the Clerk of the Course that it was raining. But once again, the race wasn’t stopped and Porto used the confusion, as did De Puniet, to pass Pedrosa and take over the lead. The victory was finally for the Repsol rider, second De Puniet, De Angelis crashed out and Pedrosa third. With this result, Porto shortens the gap to Pedrosa in the overall standings by nine points and is now 43 points behind the leader with 150 points still at stake.
Exciting and contended race also in the 125cc, with a total of eight riders fighting for the victory until the end of the race. After the start, the leader of the overall standings Dovizioso put himself ahead of the pack, quickly opening a gap, enjoying an advantage of more than three seconds after only three laps. While the following group was trying to shorten the gap, Pablo Nieto, who had started from the twenty-sixth place of the grid, began to remount positions together with Barberá -twenty-fourth on the grid- until reaching the leading group halfway the race. The following group intercepted Dovizioso, creating finally a group of eight riders, with Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Locatelli, Borsoi, Jenkner, Barberá and Pablo Nieto. The last two laps where a constant touch and go, impossible racing lines and overtaking at the limit. Pablo Nieto, who was set back to the eighth place five laps before the end of the race after touching Lorenzo’s bike with the front tyre, launched his final attack in the last lap, but without any chance to get further than fourth. In the last lap, and after several touchings between Dovizioso, Barberá and Lorenzo, the victory was finally for Lorenzo and his Derby. Sergio Gadea, who started from the twentieth position and was thirty-third after the first lap, was forced to retire three laps before the end of the race due to mechanical problems while being eighteenth after remounting several places.
The last race in Brno, MotoGP, race started well for the interests of the Repsol riders, but had a bad end: none of the three riders of the class managed to finish, all of them crashed out. After the start, Barros placed himself second behind Gibernau, with Hayden sixth and Xaus tenth. As the laps went by a group of five riders was built in the front, always lead by Gibernau. Behind the Honda rider, Rossi, Biaggi, Barros and Hayden kept their positions. Xaus, with several problems with the settings, was loosing positions until crashing while being nineteenth. In the front, it seemed that both riders of the Repsol Honda Team would be able to take part in the fight for the victory, but with eight laps for the end of the race, Barros disappeared from the scene after loosing grip in the front end and crashing. Four laps later, with four laps to go, Hayden made a mistake on the straight and ended up just as his team-mate. There was only Xaus left of the Repsol riders on the track, but in the penultimate lap he crashed as well due to a technical failure of his bike.
