Casey Stoner conquers the Czech Republic

The Repsol Honda rider seized control of the MotoGP race at the Cardion ab Grand Prix České republiky race, with Dovizioso second and Simoncelli capturing his first podium of his premier class history.Casey Stoner captured his sixth win of the season in front of 155,400 fans at Brno for Sunday’s race, stretching his Championship lead to 32 points over Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing).

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) got the hole shot off from his first pole position of the season, with Lorenzo taking the lead from him on the second lap. Stoner then took second from the Yamaha rider, just as Pedrosa crashed out of the front of the field, handing the Australian the lead.

While Stoner lengthened the gap at the head of the pack, Lorenzo came under pressure from Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), the Italian passing the Spaniard to take and hold second position. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) then caught and passed Lorenzo, moving into the third podium spot and keeping it until the finish line, the first podium of his MotoGP class career.

Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) slowly moved in on Lorenzo, but the American was unable to get close enough to make a move for fourth position, finishing the race behind his team mate in fifth.

Valentino Rossi was the first Ducati Team rider across the line, finishing sixth off his best qualifying result of the season. The Italian’s team mate Nicky Hayden followed in seventh, with Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) rounding out the top ten.

Cal Crutchlow crashed out in turn one, resulting in the fourth DNF of the season for the British rookie. Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) also had a fall; he rejoined the race but later retired with a mechanical failure. The two were joined in the pits in retirement by Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki), who low sided trying to make a move on Rossi for sixth position.(From www.motogp.com)

MotoGP stars as Brno Test follows GP

Monday will see the majority of the premier class remain at the Czech Republic circuit for the official MotoGP Test, with Yamaha debuting their 2012 prototype.Brno will host an official MotoGP Test on Monday as the premier class remain at the Czech Republic track for an extra day, following the Cardion ab Grand Prix České republiky.

The Test will see the official on-track debut of Yamaha’s 2012 prototype, with factory team riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies experiencing the evolving machine for the first time, and also potentially running some new developments on their current 2011 YZR-M1 bikes.

Round 11 race winner Casey Stoner and his Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa are due to continue the development of the Japanese factory’s 2012 prototype, Stoner having ridden the 1000cc machine once previously at Jerez whilst Pedrosa is preparing to jump on for the first time having missed the run out back in May due to injury. Andrea Dovizioso will also be present, with the Italian ready to continue working on the current RC212V.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 pair Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow will work further on their M1 machines, and the Ducati Team will also be present with Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. Rossi and his crew will hope to improve on the progress they made on the Desmosedici GP11.1 throughout the Brno weekend, whilst Hayden will dedicate time to fully testing out the GP11.1 having tried it out during the Laguna Seca GP weekend but deciding to continue racing the GP11 at the American and Czech Republic tracks.

Pramac Racing’s Loris Capirossi will take advantage of an extra day’s track time to continue his recovery from injury on board the GP11, with Toni Elías and his LCR Honda team working on their satellite RC212V.

The Marc VDS Racing team and Suter will also be in attendance, with the Moto2 outfit’s Finnish rider Mika Kallio on riding duty for the Swiss manufacturer as it continues the development of its 1000cc prototype for 2012. Bridgestone will also work further on its tyre specifications for 2012.

The Test schedule will see the track open from 9am-1pm and again from 2pm-6pm, with motogp.com providing full coverage of the day’s activities with a report for both sessions, video highlights and video interviews at the end of the day. from