Australia’s world championship leader Casey Stoner stormed to his sixth victory of the season in the MotoGP race at the Czech Grand Prix yesterday.
The 25-year-old Stoner, winning in Brno for the first time since 2007, the same year he went on to win his only MotoGP world crown, beat Honda Repsol team-mate Andrea Dovizioso of Italy by 6.532 seconds.
“I had a really tough battle with Andrea (Dovizioso) in the early laps but once I got past him I realised the bike had enough speed,” said Stoner, winning his 29th MotoGP.
“After a tough weekend it’s really satisfying to win here,” he added after finishing in fine sunny weather that helped dry the circuit after Saturday’s rain.
Dovizioso said he was pleased with his result and with a “really competitive team.”
“I made a really good start, I tried to cut Casey but I made a mistake,” he said.
Italy’s Marco Simoncelli on another Honda came in third, his first ever podium placing at this level, while defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo lost more points to the Australian in finishing fourth.
“We as a team were confident of achieving a podium position this season and I am really happy to have got my first one,” said Simoncelli.
With seven races to go in the season, Stoner now has a comfortable overall lead with 218 points ahead of Lorenzo (186) and Dovizioso (163).
Spanish pole-sitter Dani Pedrosa crashed out from the first place on lap three, followed by Britain’s Cal Crutchlow and Czech Karel Abraham.
Stoner took the lead and kept building the advantage until a few laps before the finish when he allowed the chasers to narrow the gap.
Lorenzo took the lead briefly in lap one but then he gave in to pressure from Dovizioso and Simoncelli, and he had to fight hard to shake off Yamaha’s US rider Ben Spies, who took the fifth place.
Italian Ducati rider Valentino Rossi came in sixth, failing to extend his record of five MotoGP victories on Brno’s undulating 5.403-kilometre circuit about 180 kilometres southeast of the Czech capital Prague.
Spain’s Alvaro Bautista crashed out six laps from the finish, making the weekend a total failure for his Rizla Suzuki team after his US team-mate John Hopkins had broken a finger in Saturday’s practice and was ruled out of the race.
Earlier yesterday, Italian Suter rider Andrea Iannone won the Moto2 thriller ahead of Spain’s Marc Marquez and Stefan Bradl of Germany, who is leading the championship 43 points ahead of Marquez.
And Germany’s Sandro Cortese of Aprilia scored the first victory of his career by edging France’s Johann Zarco in the 125cc race, with Spain’s Alberto Moncayo coming in third while overall leader Nicolas Terol retired early in the race.
Standings
1. Stoner (Honda) 218pts; 2. Lorenzo (Yamaha) 186; 3. Dovizioso (Honda) 163; 4. Rossi (Ducati) 118; 5. Pedrosa (Honda) 110; 6. Spies (Yamaha) 109; 7. Hayden (Ducati) 103; 8. Simoncelli (Honda) 76; 9. Edwards (Yamaha) 75; 10. Aoyama (Honda) 70.