Stoner Takes Seventh Victory of 2007
A seventh victory of the 2007 season means that Casey Stoner leaves Brno with an advantage of over two races from his title rivals.
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 A seventh victory of the 2007 season means that Casey Stoner leaves Brno with an advantage of over two races from his title rivals. Sixty points separate the Australian from second placed rider Valentino Rossi in the MotoGP World Championship after another runaway win from the Ducati young gun, with Dani Pedrosa a further 18 points behind. Stoner led from start to finish in the Czech Republic, his second consecutive victory from pole position. Eventually winning the race by nearly eight seconds, Stoner still had to keep his wits about him in the early going as Suzuki’s John Hopkins matched him for pace. The Anglo-American lost touch with the current series leader at the midway point, but still maintained his focus for a second place finish, his best ever in MotoGP and his second podium of the 2007 season. Both Hopkins and reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden were looking to make a comeback after disappointment at their home circuit at the previous round, and the stateside duo made amends with podium appearances. Hayden confirmed that he is back in business in the premier class after two previous podiums before his Laguna Seca misfortune, putting the Honda RC212V on the rostrum for a third time in his title defending year. ‘The Kentucky Kid’ had to pass his Honda factory team-mate Dani Pedrosa to earn his third spot, but pulled away to finish as the best classified rider from the Japanese factory. Chris Vermeulen once again worked his way up from a less-than-ideal position on the grid for fifth place, having put in some aggressive overtaking manoeuvres on some of the more experienced MotoGP riders such as Loris Capirossi who was sixth. Valentino Rossi’s first Brno finish off the podium in MotoGP did little to help his title chances, and he now has to chase a gap even larger than that which he closed last year if he is to regain his crown. The Italian returned to the garage with his tyres ripped to shreds after giving his all on the Yamaha M1, but could do nothing to keep touch with the riders in front. Randy de Puniet, Alex Barros and Carlos Checa were the other three riders to finish in the top ten. The MotoGP World Championship continues in two weeks time at Misano. 250cc Showing why he has been snapped up by Yamaha to ride in MotoGP next season, reigning 250cc World Champion Jorge Lorenzo put on a riding masterclass to extend his lead in this year’s series to 30 points. The Spaniard took victory at Brno from pole position and was rarely in any real danger as he pulled away from race and title rival Andrea Dovizioso. The Fortuna Aprilia rider –forsaking his normal golden helmet and gloves combo this afternoon- has been a winner seven times in 2007, always from pole position. Dovizioso had tried to stick with his nemesis over the early stages, but a slight mistake when pushing too hard enabled Lorenzo to extend the gap to over 7.5 seconds and give the Italian a lonely but comfortable ride to the line. Mika Kallio followed up his Sachsenring podium with third place in the Czech Republic, coming off a flying start onboard the KTM. Hector Barbera, Alvaro Bautista and Hiroshi Aoyama all finished close together to round off the top six, with the latter only really catching up with those ahead of him with a pair of laps left in the race. Thomas Luthi headed the battling Honda factory pairing of Julian Simon and Shuhei Aoyama, with Roberto Locatelli completing the top ten. Alex de Angelis failed to finish in the top four for the first time this season after colliding with Kallio on lap 17, but picked up his bike to run it home in eleventh. Now 40 points behind Lorenzo in the classification, the atmosphere is heating up yet further for De Angelis’ home race in two week’s time. 250cc rider Taro Sekiguchi is spending the night in hospital after a nasty crash in the quarter litre warm up session. Thrown high into the air when he made impact with Marco Simoncelli’s prone bike, which he was unable to see due to the dust raised just moments before, the Japanese rider came down to earth with a huge impact that fractured his pelvis and two ribs but thankfully leaves him in a non-critical condition. 125cc A third 125cc Grand Prix victory of the season wowed the crowd in the first race back from the summer break, and put Hector Faubel back on top of the classification ahead of team-mate Gabor Talmacsi. A slow burning race built to an epic finale, with the turning point being a crash from Sergio Gadea that closed up the leading pack. The young Spaniard had taken the group with him for so much of the duel, but an innocuous lowside seemingly under little pressure knocked him out of the running. The last 3 laps were simply stunning, as eventual second placed finisher Mattia Pasini held and lost the lead, ducked sharply inside from outside the podium spots and gave home rider Lukas Pesek the chance to take a popular rostrum finish. Things had looked desperate for the Czech rider when he ran wide and lost places, and the desperate Derbi man looked for every angle to step onto the podium. Hanging in waiting for a mistake, he was rewarded for his efforts and delighted his hordes of fans. A wobble from Pasini allowed the top four to close up, but Talmacsi had already been thrown off his pace by Gadea’s crash. The Hungarian, immensely popular in Brno, took fourth spot and trails team-mate Faubel by ten points. Tomoyoshi Koyama and Pol Espargaro completed the top six , the former around seven seconds away from the frontrunners, and Simone Corsi, Michael Ranseder, Randy Krummenacher and Sandro Cortese rounded off the first ten past the line. Full result to come Motogp – Brno Race Result Pos-Rider-Team-Time 1-Casey Stoner-Ducati Marlboro Team-43m 45.810s 2-John Hopkins-Rizla Suzuki MotoGP-+ 7.903s 3-Nicky Hayden-Repsol Honda Team-+ 13.1s 4-Dani Pedrosa-Repsol Honda Team-+ 15.8s 5-Chris Vermeulen-Rizla Suzuki MotoGP-+ 17.303s 6-Loris Capirossi-Ducati Marlboro Team-+ 19.363s 7-Valentino Rossi-Fiat Yamaha Team-+ 22.485s 8-Randy de Puniet-Kawasaki Racing Team-+ 23.073s 9-Alex Barros-Pramac d'Antin Ducati-+ 32.292s 10-Carlos Checa-Honda LCR -+ 35.153s 11-Toni Elias-Honda Gresini -+ 37.748s 12-Anthony West-Kawasaki Racing Team-+ 38.25s 13-Sylvain Guintoli-Yamaha Tech 3-+ 43.694s 14-Shinya Nakano-Konica Minolta Honda-+ 57.069s 15-Kurtis Roberts-Team Roberts -+ 1m 09.603s 16-Ivan Silva-Pramac d'Antin Ducati-+ 1m 21.410s 17-Makoto Tamada-Yamaha Tech 3-+ 1m 25.804s -Not classified-- -Colin Edwards-Fiat Yamaha Team-+ 20 laps World Championship Standings Pos-Rider-Team-Points 1-Casey Stoner-Ducati Marlboro Team-246 2-Valentino Rossi-Fiat Yamaha Team-186 3-Dani Pedrosa-Repsol Honda Team-168 4-Chris Vermeulen-Rizla Suzuki MotoGP-124 5-John Hopkins-Rizla Suzuki MotoGP-124 6-Marco Melandri-Honda Gresini-113 7-Colin Edwards-Fiat Yamaha Team-93 8-Nicky Hayden-Repsol Honda Team-89 9-Loris Capirossi-Ducati Marlboro Team-87 10-Alex Barros-Pramac d'Antin Ducati-83 11-Alex Hofmann-Pramac d'Antin -60 12-Randy de Puniet-Kawasaki Racing Team-58 13-Toni Elias-Honda Gresini-54 14-Carlos Checa -Honda LCR-35 15-Anthony West-Kawasaki Racing Team-33 16-Makoto Tamada-Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3-31 17-Shinya Nakano-Konica Minolta Honda-31 18-Sylvain Guintoli-Dunlop Yamaha Tech-24 19-Kurtis Roberts-Team Roberts -9 20-Roger Lee Hayden-Kawasaki Racing Team-6
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