Stoner takes his sixth victory and increases his advantage at the top of the overall standings. Dovizioso signs a great race and finishes second, while Pedrosa crashes in the first laps when he was leading the race.
More than 150.000 fans gathered today at the Brno Circuit to witness the eleventh round of the MotoGP World Championship, where Casey Stoner achieved his sixth victory of the season. The Repsol Honda Team rider, who leads the overall standings with 32 points over Lorenzo, was accompanied on the podium by his team mate Andrea Dovizioso, who was second. Bad luck for Dani Pedrosa, who fell just some corners after taking the lead of the race, in the third lap.
After the red lights went out, the Spaniard had a good start from pole position, followed by Casey Stoner who, after overtaking Lorenzo in the first metres, lost the position again in the second corner and had to fight with the Repsol Honda Team third rider, Andrea Dovizioso, who also managed to overtake him and was in front of him for two laps.
Just one lap later, Dani Pedrosa got rid of Jorge Lorenzo at the end of the straight, while Casey Stoner followed him closely. Nevertheless, the Spaniard’s lead was short, as only a few metres later, in right-hand corner number four, he lost grip on the front tyre of his RC212V and crashed, handing the lead to his team mate. Stoner then started to gain some margin over his rivals and went on to take his sixth win of the season.
With this result, the Repsol rider leads the overall standing with an advantage of 32 points over Lorenzo, while the Spaniard has Andrea Dovizioso only 23 points behind him. The Italian of the Repsol Honda Team achieved a well-deserved second position at the Czech track, after overtaking the Yamaha of the Spanish rider in the ninth lap and resist the attack of his countryman Simoncelli, who despite being at his wheel most of the race, finished more than one second behind Dovizioso.
The World Championship will resume the action in two week’s time in the United States, this time in the centenarian circuit of Indianapolis.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
fall
“It was a shame. I lost the front and I crashed, that was it! I was not even pushing so hard, I just took the lead and, well I may have tilted the bike too much, maybe the tyre was not warm enough, still I don’t know. The problem is that I’ve wasted an important race that we had prepared for very well. I have to thank the team for the bike they gave me this weekend, it worked really well, and I will tell them I’m sorry for the mistake. It hurts because we were well prepared and finally the race was quite slow compared to the pace we did in practice sessions, but we can not do anything, just think towards the next one and try to get back on top. Let’s hope that tomorrow we can have at least some hours in the dry to test the 1000cc. I’ve been looking forward to see how the new machine is after missing the Jerez test and I would like to make some good laps tomorrow”.
Andrea Dovizioso >> Audio
2nd at 6.532 sec.
“I’m really happy to be back on the podium, it’s a good result after a difficult weekend and second position is so important for the Championship. In the warm up we made some small changes and my feeling improved. I arrived at the race very determined and I made a very good start from seventh position. In the first laps I was riding cautiously to save the tyres. I had good pace and when Dani crashed I tried to stay with Casey but I made a mistake at turn 13 and I almost went off the track. I lost contact and from that moment Casey built a gap that was impossible to catch. I’m happy of how I managed the race first with Lorenzo and then with Simoncelli to maintain second position. In the final five laps I pushed harder, lapping under 1’58 to maintain the margin from Marco. I didn’t want to fight with him in the last corners. I want to thank Honda and the team for the good work, despite the fact that we struggled slightly over the weekend, we have demonstrated one more time that in the race we are there and I’m really looking forward to Indy in two weeks time”.
Casey Stoner >> Audio
1st – 43:16.796
“We knew we could make a strong podium challenge today but we didn’t really expect the race win. As soon as the race got underway I was having a good battle with Andrea but this cost me a little time and I was afraid that Jorge and Dani would stretch away from me but when I got past I found I had plenty of speed to catch up and the bike felt great. I passed Jorge and then Dani sadly crashed out so I pushed to see if I could pull a gap and I was able to do so quite quickly, then from this point it was a matter of managing the race. I’m very sorry for Dani, he would have been hard to beat today. After such a hard weekend it’s fantastic to come out with a comfortable win, a big thanks to my team who never give up, they always support me so a huge thanks to them. Tomorrow we’ll be back on the 1000 for another day of testing, so I hope the weather stays dry for us!”.
