[.OrgOwner]

Casey Stoner took his seventh win of the season after dominating the Czech MotoGP at Brno.
The 21-year-old Australian completed a lights-to-flag victory on his Ducati, coming home 7.903 seconds ahead of Suzuki's John Hopkins, who took the best finish of his career in second.
World champion Nicky Hayden completed the podium while Valentino Rossi could only manage seventh place, meaning he is now a mammoth 60 points behind Stoner in the championship with only six races to go.
Pole sitter Stoner sprinted into the lead at the lights, followed by Dani Pedrosa's Repsol Honda and Hopkins.
The American though was in no mood to stay behind and nipped through before the end of the first lap.
Hopkins' countryman Hayden repeated the move on Stoner on lap three and that was that as the front four remained in that order for the remaining 19 laps.
Fifth in the early stages was Loris Capirossi on the second Ducati, and the veteran Italian was to form one quarter of the battle of the race.
Capirossi's choice of soft Bridgestones forced him to run conservatively early on, which made him easy meat for Rossi, himself having edged his Yamaha in front of Randy de Puniet's Kawasaki four laps earlier.
But there was a fourth interloper too and Chris Vermeulen, benefiting from Suzuki's storming pace in the race, went by de Puniet for seventh on lap eight and then Capriossi two laps later.
As Rossi's rear Michelin began to degrade it was easy for Vermeulen to slide inside the Yamaha with eight laps to go into the fifth place he would finish in, and equally simple for Capirossi to steal sixth back before the end.
Behind seventh-place Rossi, de Puniet, Alex Barros on a d'Antin Ducati and Carlos Checa on an LCR Honda completed the top ten.
Colin Edwards would surely have been in the mix too, but a crash on the second lap ended the Yamaha man's hopes of a good result.

So is anyone prepared to bet against Casey Stoner at this stage? It appears only injury will stop him from winning in 2007.

[fl-929]

Nice to see Nicky back on the podium. Wonder what he would have done if they actually built a bike a normal sized people instead of dani-bot.

No deal yet for Colin w/ Yamaha and that crash didn't help his chances of staying in Motogp. Might be seeing him in AMA next year.

[.OrgOwner]

Speaking fo crashes that one in the 250 race was brutal.

[fl-929]

One of the worst crashes I have seen


YouTube - Caduta Taro Sekiguchi Brno 250 cc

[firebladetoronto]

Originally Posted by fl-929

One of the worst crashes I have seen


YouTube - Caduta Taro Sekiguchi Brno 250 cc

HOLY #@$%@! That was crazy!!!

[.OrgOwner]

Yeah when you watch it from that angle it looks very much like the dust made it impossible to see to the other bike until the last moment, he has no option at all. Just a freak event that that bike would go off the track like that kick up all that dust then finish in the middle of the track.

[dicknose]

The MotoGP race was very boring - not much in the way of dicing amongst the leaders. After about the 3rd lap it settled and I dont think the top 3 changed.
As much as I like seeing Casey win, its also nice to have a battle at the front and an interesting race.

Its a little surprising that Rossi is looking more and more off the pace.
Not sure if its that the Hondas are better - but maybe also that the Ducati is better as Caparossi is doing a bit better, certainly compared to his mate Rossi.

Nice to see Hopkins do well. But makes you wonder if he jumped ship at the wrong time!

[my2ndhornet]

Originally Posted by dicknose

Its a little surprising that Rossi is looking more and more off the pace.
Not sure if its that the Hondas are better - but maybe also that the Ducati is better as Caparossi is doing a bit better

They showed Rossis front tyre after the race - blistered to bits - whether it's just cr*p tyres alone from Michy' or a combination of wrong suspension set-up as well, only Rossi knows. Something aint working but!

The very few times they did show Stoner late in the race, he was still hammering big time

[Phadreus]

On a seemingly related topic; I always record the races on my DVR and watch them later. I do this to FF through the commercials, ESPECIALLY the Progressive Insurance commercials. If I have to watch that lady back into that Blade one more time, I'm gonna snap like a green been!

[postman1983]

Your telling me the other day i was with my buddy and we were talking about that TV ad and we get out of the restaurant we were at and bam so old fart backs up into his 929. i was pissed but i could help laugh a little.

[TKDmasterZ]

I take no credit away from Casey, but I have to say the 2007 MotoGP series has been somewhat boring, specially the last few races. I haven't seen dicing back and forth for the lead in a while. In AMA, at least there is the battle btwn Spies and Mladin. In superbike, there are five to ten guys fighting for the podium, at every race. I only look forward to World SBK races now...

[Phadreus]

[.OrgOwner]

The thing I noticed about Casey when they did show him his was that he looked very much like he was not taking things easy even with the lead he had. Maybe towards the end his tyres had gone off and it looked like he was pressing harder than he was.