Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo captured his seventh win of the '10 season with a victory at Brno.
Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo continued his remarkable season on Sunday by claiming his first win at the Brno circuit, and his seventh total victory of the 2010 MotoGP Championship. The Spaniard successfully converted his front row start into a victory in the Czech Republic, and in doing so has added another 25 points to his substantial lead in the series.
"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," Lorenzo said. "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."
The podium was rounded out by Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Marlboro Ducati’s Casey Stoner, both putting in excellent runs in front of the 148,000 fans who packed the Brno circuit.
“Today wasn’t the best result for us, but still the podium is okay and we can build on this result," Pedrosa said. "After the test tomorrow we go to Indianapolis and I was strong there last year - despite the mistake in the race - so I’m confident we can be competitive again at the next race.”
Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo and Honda's Dani Pedrosa were involved in a terrific duel for the lead at Brno early in the race.
Despite the chance of showers the sun was shining over the Czech circuit as Lorenzo and Pedrosa immediately went to work on each other. Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi and Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso both sustained falls in the opening laps, with Dovizioso escaping severe injury as he dodged oncoming bikes while marooned in the middle of the track.
“I am so upset by today’s race because I know I could have had a good result here," said Capirossi. "I got hit on the first lap by another rider and that pushed my clutch lever right up, so I had to hit it to get it into place and by the time I had done that I was last."
Meanwhile Lorenzo and Pedrosa were trading the fastest lap time back and forth up front. The championship leader gradually began to pull ahead of Pedrosa as Stoner settled in behind them. Another rider to suffer misfortune was Pramac Ducati Racing’s Mika Kallio when he crashed out, adding another DNF to his ’10 season.
As the race wore on the top-five riders became more separated, and Lorenzo eventually crossed the line by a full 5.494 seconds ahead of Pedrosa. With his latest victory Lorenzo has extended his lead within the championship to 77 points. Following behind Pedrosa to complete the podium was Stoner, who finished third almost six seconds behind. The Australian’s latest result at Brno has moved him up in the standings ahead of Dovizioso.
“It’s more points and we are dragging ourselves back up the leader board," Stoner said. "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.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Ben Spies just missed the podium in fourth after getting a good start from the front row. Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi finished fifth and more than four seconds behind the Texan, while Americans Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards took sixth and seventh respectively. San Carlo Honda’s Marco Melandri secured eighth-place across the line, followed by Paginas Amarillas Aspar’s Hector Barbera in ninth. On his return to racing since he fractured his leg in Germany, LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet completed the top-10.
2010 MotoGP Brno Results:
1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
3. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
4. Ben Spies (Yamaha)
5. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
6. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)
Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa had to settle for second at Brno after he was unable to match the pace of Jorge Lorenzo.
7. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
8. Marco Melandri (Honda)
9. Hector Barbera (Ducati)
10. Randy de Puniet (Honda)
11. Marco Simoncelli (Honda)
12. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati)
13. Alex de Angelis (Honda)
DNF Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki)
DNF Mika Kallio (Ducati)
DNF Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)
DNF Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)
2010 MotoGP Championship Results:
1. Jorge Lorenzo, 235
2. Dani Pedrosa, 158
3. Casey Stoner, 119
4. Andrea Dovizioso, 115
5. Valentino Rossi, 101
6. Nicky Hayden, 99
7. Ben Spies, 90
8. Randy de Puniet, 75
9. Marco Melandri, 61
10. Colin Edwards, 57
Moto2
Taking his fourth win of the 2010 season in Moto2 was Gresini Racing’s Toni Elias. The Spaniard put in a carefully controlled ride ahead of Tech 3 Racing’s Yuki Takahashi and Fimmco Speed Up’s Andrea Iannone to take the win and increase his lead in the championship to 55 points. Also, Elias’ latest victory marks the 100th podium finish of the
Championship leader Toni Elias earned another 25 points after taking the win at Brno ahead of Yuki Takahashi.
Gresini team in the world championship series.
Technomag-CIP’s Shoya Tomizawa got off to a good start and was followed by Forward Racing’s Jules Cluzel, who quickly settled into second despite starting from the third row. Experiencing an early crash was German rider Arne Tode of Racing Team Germany. Meanwhile Elias was carefully assessing the frontrunners and soon afterward took up second-place behind Tomizawa. As the halfway point in the contest approached Iannone took over the lead and began pulling away.
Elias remained determined, however, and made up a gap of more than one second to close in on the Italian rider. On Lap 13 Elias started to overtake Iannone as Italtrans STR’s Roberto Rolfo introduced himself to the battle for the top-three. It proved not to be Rolfo’s day, however, as the Italian soon afterward encountered a mechanical failure and had to retire early from the race.
Once in the lead Elias began pulling ahead while Takahashi settled into second-place ahead of Iannone on the penultimate lap. Elias eventually took the checkers with an advantage of more than two seconds over Takahashi, and gained another 25 points in the championship. Iannone took third after being passed by Takahashi while Mapfre Aspar’s Jules Cluzel and Julian Simon rounded out the top-five finishes in fourth and fifth respectively. After taking 11th at Brno, Interwetten Moriwaki Racing’s Thomas Luthi has dropped down to third in the championship behind Iannone.
2010 Moto2 Brno Results:
1. Toni Elias (Moriwaki)
2. Yuki Takahashi (Tech 3)
3. Andrea Iannone (Speed Up)
4. Jules Cluzel (Suter)
5. Julian Simon (Suter)
6. Gabor Talmacsi (Speed Up)
7. Alex Debon (FTR)
Andrea Iannone was overtaken late in the race by Yuki Takahashi and had to settle for a third-place finish.
8. Simone Corsi (Motobi)
9. Stefan Bradl (Suter)
10. Shoya Tomizawa (Suter)
11. Thomas Luthi (Moriwaki)
12. Hector Faubel (Suter)
13. Fonsi Nieto (Moriwaki)
14. Sergio Gadea (Pons Kalex)
15. Raffaele de Rosa (Tech 3)
2010 Moto2 Championship Results:
1. Toni Elias, 161
2. Andrea Iannone, 106
3. Thomas Luthi, 99
4. Julian Simon, 88
5. Shoya Tomizawa, 82
6. Jules Cluzel, 74
7. Simone Corsi, 73
8. Yuki Takahashi, 72
9. Gabor Talmacsi, 62
10. Sergio Gadea, 49
