FIFTH WIN OF THE SEASON TAKES ROSSI FIFTY POINTS CLEAR
Valentino Rossi moved two races clear at the top of the championship
with his fifth win of the season today, enjoying an easy ride
home after his closest rival Casey Stoner crashed out on lap
seven. Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo made
the best of a difficult situation, making up several places
on his grid position and bringing his M1 home a creditable
10th.
Rossi, starting from second, lost some time at the first
corner getting past John Hopkins and for the first couple
of laps Stoner looked in danger of clearing off, but the Italian
soon found his rhythm and was gradually making up time on
the Australian when he saw him slide off into the gravel.
The pair had already opened out an impressive gap from the
chasing pack and Rossi was left to race the remaining 15 laps
alone and unchallenged, eventually coming home 15 seconds
clear of Toni Elias. The seven-time world champion’s
67th premier-class victory takes him within one race of the
all-time premier-class record, held by his compatriot Giacomo
Agostini.
Rossi is now 50 points clear of Stoner with Pedrosa 15 points
off in third, whilst Lorenzo’s six points see him remain
fourth in the standings, ten points ahead of Andrea Dovizioso.
The team will remain in Brno for a two-day test, before the
next round at Misano in Italy in two week’s time.
Valentino Rossi
Position: 1 Time: 43'28.841
“I was confident today because my bike was fast from
Friday practice, and with Jeremy we made a small modification
to the front after warm-up to allow me to be a bit faster
in some sections, and it worked very well. I lost about half
a second getting past Hopkins at the start and Casey was incredibly
fast at that stage, like he’d already done ten laps!
For a short time I was worried but then, after two laps, I
understood that my bike was working very well and that I was
fast enough to try to catch him. I had closed a little bit
already and gradually the red bike was becoming a bit bigger
in front of me, and I think this is when he started to push
harder and made his mistake. I was anticipating a very hard
battle if I did catch him, so when I saw the red bike slide
out I could hardly believe it – this made things a lot
easier for me! After that I just enjoyed riding my bike; my
Bridgestone tyres worked very well until the end and my M1
felt very good. Of course I can’t count this as a complete
victory because Casey fell, and I am sorry for him, but this
is racing and I have to be happy with this result. We are
50 points clear which is a lot and I am very excited to be
going to Misano in this situation. However we know that 50
points is still not always enough when you have someone as
strong as Casey and so we won’t relax. Now we have two
days of testing and we will try some new electronics in order
to help me open the throttle earlier and also, of course,
test some Bridgestone tyres.”
Davide Brivio
Team Manager
“Of course this is a very important victory for us and
we’re very happy today. It’s clear that Valentino
did a very good job at the start not to let Stoner get too
far ahead, and he was starting to make up ground and put some
pressure on him when he unfortunately crashed. Of course this
made our job a lot easier! We need to keep going like this
and not lose our concentration, but we’ve had two very
good races and we are confident that we are in good shape.
We have two days of testing now which will be very important
for the final six races, and then we go to another home race
at Misano and try to make up for last year!”
Results
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 43'28.841
2. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team + 15.004
3. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 21.689
4. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 25.859
5. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing + 29.465
6. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki + 30.608
7. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro + 36.453
8. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 36.750
9. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 38.822
10. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team + 39.573
11. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing + 39.610
12. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team + 40.892
13. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha + 1'11.490
14. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha + 1'21.133
15. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda + 1'37.038
16. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP + 1'38.407
NOT CLASSIFIED
Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 16 Lap
Championship Standings
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 237
2. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 187
3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 172
4. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 120
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 110
6. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 102
7. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 99
8. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 84
9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 83
10. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 77
11. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 75
12. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 66
13. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 49
14. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 42
15. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 41
16. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 40
17. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 37
18. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 33
19. Ben Spies (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 10
20. Jamie Hacking (USA) Kawasaki Racing Team 5
21. Tadyuki Okada (JPN) Repsol Honda Team 2
Brno: Record Lap
L. Capirossi (Ducati) 2006, 1'58.157
Brno: Best Lap
V. Rossi (Yamaha) 2006, 1'56.191
|
