RACE REPORT – CZECH REPUBLIC GRAND PRIX - BRNO
ROSSI CLINCHES CRUCIAL SECOND PLACE AT BRNO
 Valentino
Rossi picked up 20 vital points in the Czech Republic today
after taking second place in a race which saw series leader
Nicky Hayden (Honda) stumble to ninth – a result which
reduces the gap between the pair to 38 points with five rounds
remaining. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) took a dominant victory,
leading from the first corner to finish with a 4.902 second
advantage, whilst Rossi had to fend off a valiant challenge
from rookie Dani Pedrosa (Honda) four laps from the end before
comfortably sealing the runner-up spot.
It was an even tougher afternoon for Colin Edwards, who started
out in equally impressive fashion to his team-mate but faded
in the second half of the race to finish in tenth. The Texan
started from eighth on the grid and was keen to get in touch
with the leading riders as soon as possible, making up three
places on the opening three laps. However, his efforts took
their toll on the rear Michelin tyre of his YZR-M1 machine
and, without the perfect set-up to rely on in the latter stages
of the race, he was forced to drop back and settle for another
top-ten finish.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st; + 4.902)
“It was a good race today and I am very happy with the
weekend. Obviously starting from pole position you hope that
you can win but today Loris had a completely different pace
to the rest of us and I couldn’t believe the gap he
made! We weren’t perfect today and we still had a few
problems, but anyway I was able to do a good race and fight
hard to the end. I had a great battle with Pedrosa with many
good overtakes, which was great fun, especially since I finally
managed to finish in front of him! Even though I didn’t
win today this is a very important result for the championship;
we are now third and we’ve gained on Pedrosa and Hayden.
After this weekend the situation is much clearer for us with
the bike and the tyres and now we have two days of testing,
during which we have some new things to try in order to help
us be even more competitive for the final five races. This
weekend my M1 worked well from Friday morning, which is very
encouraging after the problems we’ve had during practice
this season. Everyone at Yamaha has worked so hard to come
back to this level so I want to thank my team and all the
engineers. Now there are five more races and five riders who
can still fight for the championship, so I think it’s
going to be a very exciting end to the season!”
COLIN EDWARDS (10th; + 19.435)
“At the beginning things felt alright and over the first
few laps I was actually quite excited. I was able to be quite
aggressive and pass a few people, but then after a while things
just went downhill. The balance of the bike didn’t feel
right and I just couldn’t keep the same level. Then
the tyre started to go off after about eight laps and that
just acted as a limiter and my pace went right down. I was
fighting really hard just to keep the pace I was running and
it was nowhere near fast enough to be competitive. The bike
didn’t feel perfect under braking either and that makes
life difficult here! We’ve spent all weekend playing
around, trying to find the right balance but we just couldn’t
find exactly what we needed. Honestly we’ve worked hard
all weekend but things just weren’t right today. We’ve
got two days of testing now and plenty of work to do if we’re
going to improve for the final few races.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“This has been a good weekend, despite the fact that
we didn’t win. We’ve achieved the most important
goal of taking a lot of points back from Hayden and also gaining
on Pedrosa. Valentino starting from pole position is a great
improvement after the previous weekends and it’s a good
sign for the final part of the season. There are five riders
now that can win the championship and it’s clearly going
to be a hard fight to the end, for which we need to be fully
prepared! This weekend has shown how well Yamaha can react
to problems and everyone has worked extremely hard to solve
them, so a big thank you to the mechanics, engineers and of
course Valentino! Colin made some big changes before the race
and in the first part of it he looked very good. Unfortunately
he couldn’t keep that pace up and now these two days
of testing for him will be very important in order to come
up with some things that can help him finish the season well.”
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