Capirossi bolts, Rossi & Pedrosa battle
In one of the most dominant wins seen this season, Marlboro Ducati's Loris Capirossi put daylight between himself and the rest of the field at Brno, the Italian clearly overjoyed with a performance that - based on this result, at least - shows the Desmosedici GP6 has the pace to take it up to the Hondas and Yamahas.
After qualifying second to Valentino Rossi (Camel Yamaha), Capirossi lead the field into the first corner and was never headed for the remaining 22 laps, easing off for a comfortable 4+ second win at the finish. Starting from 12th on the grid, Casey Stoner (LCR Honda) put a blinder of an opening lap, threading his way through to fourth place, then caught up amongst Marco Melandri (Fortuna Honda), John Hopkins (Rizla Suzuki), Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki) and Kenny Roberts Jr (Team Roberts), this knot of riders duelling with each other for the remainder of the race. Nicky Hayden's (Repsol Honda) title hopes took a knock with a ninth place finish, passed for third place by team mate Dani Pedrosa on lap 7 and several other riders in the dying stages to lose valuable championship points.
With Hayden behind him, Pedrosa set his sights on Rossi, making several scary-looking lunges before briefly passing Rossi on lap 17. The Spaniard couldn't make the move stick tough, Rossi snatching the lead back under braking before extending it to a comfortable gap for the closing laps. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) qualified well down the field, the Aussie struggling at Brno to finish twelfth.
MotoGP Results: 1. Capirossi, 2. Rossi, 3. Pedrosa, 4. Roberts Jr, 5. Melandri, 6. Stoner, 7. Hopkins, 8. Nakano, 9. Hayden, 10. Edwards.
Championship standings MotoGP: Nicky Hayden 201, Dani Pedrosa 176, Valentino Rossi 163, Marco Melandri 161, Loris Capirossi 151, Casey Stoner 101, Kenny Roberts Jr 92, Colin Edwards 90, John Hopkins 83, Shinya Nakano 75.
250cc
Spain's Jorge Lorenzo put his Aprilia on pole from Andrea Dovizioso on a Honda and Hiroshi Aoyama on a KTM, the trio repeating those placings at the chequered flag after Lorenzo had dropped back to fourth place in the usual early lap mayhem. Alex de Angelis made it a four-way fight for the lead, before he crashed his Aprilia on lap 5. After qualifying 18th following a series of engine and electrical problems, Ant West on the Kiefer-BOS Aprilia pulled into the pits after 13 laps, struck down by mechanical problems yet again.
250 Results: 1.Lorenzo, 2. Dovizioso, 3. H. Aoyama, 4. Locatelli, 5. Barbera.
125cc
Spain's Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia) extended his championship lead to 69 points with a close fought race victory over main rival, Mika Kallio (KTM). Gabor Talmacsi (Honda) was a distant third.
125 Results: 1. Bautista, 2. Kallio, 3. Talmacsi, 4. Gadea, 5. Luthi.
