Check mate in Brno

Back on European soil at Karel Abreham's circuit and home Grand Prix in the Czech Republic.

MotoGP:
On thursday it was announced that Honda rider Casey Stoner will be flying out to Australia after medical specialists confirmed he needed an operation on his ankle. He posted photo's of his injury to his Twitter account shortly after the Indy GP and how he managed to ride a 1000cc bike in his state i do not know - it's true MotoGP rider's are machine's. With all the intentions of riding this weekend Stoner now faces being out for a lengthy amount of time, he says he hopes to be fit and ready for the penultimate race at Philip Island, Australia (28th october) which will be his last home GP before his retirement at the end of this season.
As well as Stoner not being able to race at Brno, Ducati rider Nicky Hayden was also absent from the weekend. He stayed back in the US to recover from his hand injury as advised.
*Neither were replaced by test riders, however Jonathan Rea will be testing the Honda on Monday and is set to replace the Australian until he returns.

Jorge Lorenzo started from pole and had an impressive start, with the pocket rocket Dani Pedrosa on his exhaust. Both Tech 3 riders, Ben Spies and Valentino Rossi all got off to a good start too, battling for 3rd and 4th.
The black cloud loomed over Ben Spies once again, this time he faced clutch problems off the line and after momentarily battling for 3rd he rapidly dropped down the field in to 13th where he remained till he took a tumble in the gravel, another retirement for the Texan.
Who said MotoGP was always boring?! Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa gave us some antagonising action for 1st place, countlessly changing the lead right to the end. Pedrosa definitely gave his team a taste of what he hopes next year will be like! Pedrosa took it down to the wire and won the race ahead of Lorenzo.
Away from the front two Cal Crutchlow had a lonely race in 3rd, where he finished the race on his Tech 3 Yamaha - he made history and became the first driver to step on the podium in 12 years!! Let's hope there's many more podium celebrations to come!
Rookie Stefan Bradl had his best MotoGP race of the year finishing in 5th after battling with Alvaro Bautista and Valentino for much of the race, hard to believe it's only his first season in the the premier class. Rossi finished the race in 7th after a blowout of oil in the early stages of the race meant he had no boot grip, he also dropped off the pace after tyre issues hampered his race.
Home rider Karel Abraham finished in 9th.

[1st-Dani Pedrosa, 2nd- Jorge Lorenzo, 3rd-Cal Crutchlow]

Next Up:

After back to back races MotoGP now has 3 weeks to recover from two eventful GP's. 

The next race will be a tough one as we head to San Marino otherwise known as Misano World Circuit  Marco Simoncelli, renamed in memory of Super Sic who lived a few miles away. The GP will be held from 14th-16th September.

Brno, Czech Republic - low down.

I'll start of by saying, this weekend the MotoGP world remembered Shoya Tomizawa who took his last pole at Brno last year and finished in 11th, his last finish at a Moto2 race. We miss you Shoya!! A young talent and an all round lovely guy who will always be remembered, Misano will be a hard weekend.

With varying weather conditions throughout the weekend, race day was the highest temperatures, with limited knowledge of what setup to use the 125’s were first out in the blazing sunshine.

With Nicolas Terol, the 125cc championship leader, having to retire because of mechanical problems, Sandro Cortese was able to take his first Grand Prix win, followed on the podium by Johann Zarco and Alberto Moncayo.

It wasn’t a strong day for the British riders as Danny Kent went out in the 125’s,Bradley Smith crashing and retiring out of the Moto2 class and Cal Crutchlow later crashing out in MotoGP.

Moto2 was another cracking race with the top four battling out to the chequered flag.

Stefan bradl led comfortably for the first half of the race but his race soon came under threat by Andrea Lannone, Marc Marquez and Alex de Angelis, all battling at the front.

Just as you thought one was in the lead, it changed and the order kept shuffling around till the last lap (a little confusing amongst the excitement of uncertainty of who would finish where)

On the last lap the battle for the win at Brno was between Lannone and Marquez who fought till the last corner when the Italian, Lannone took the win, the Moto2 podium was completed with Marquez in 2^nd and Bradl finishing in 3^rd.

With the lower classes completed it was time for MotoGP to get underway at Brno circuit, all riders opted for the extra-harder compound front and soft rear tyre except Jorge Lorenzo and Alvaro Bautista who both took a gamble and went for the softer front option.

Dani Pedrosa looked strong all weekend and with a solid pole position he was unable to keep in front when off the line and Lorenzo swiftly passed him with the rest of the ‘aliens’ not far behind.

Just seconds after taking back the lead from Lorenzo, who slipped back behind Stoner, Pedrosa lost the front end and subsequently crashed his Honda (he is okay, luckily) meanwhile in the middle of the field Valentino Rossi -who’s been struggling all year with his Ducati bike- managed to take 7^th from his team mate Nicky Hayden.

Stoner ran away in first ahead of Lorenzo and Dovizioso with a 2.5 second gap while home rider Karol Abraham, who’s weekend had been far from perfect, crashed out, to rejoin the race to then later retire with a mechanical failure, a disappointing weekend for him and then team however the crowd still had plenty of action to enjoy.

Lorenzo’s tyre choice gave him no favours and after having a few wobbly moments, Marco Simoncelli overtook the current world champion for 3^rd (yes, cleanly and stayed upright). Honda’s powered the front followed by the Yamaha boy’s n 4^th and 5^th with Rossi holding on to 6^th after having been pressured by Bautista who then crashed out.

Stoner went on to take his sixth win of the season, increasing his lead even further in the championship. Dovizioso came in 2^nd and it was a long time coming but Simoncelli finally got to step foot on the podium and enjoy the celebrations.

The best of the rest saw Lorenzo finish in 4^th along side his team mate Ben Spies, who despite having a trapped nerve causing trouble in his arm and neck came in a triumphant 5^th seeing as he was unsure as to whether he’d complete the full race distance. Rossi took 6^th a massive boost for the team who finally seem to be going forward rather than hanging around at the back of the field, somewhere we are not used to seeing Valentino Rossi, with his team mate Hayden finishing in 7th.

 [MotoGP Brno, Czech Republic podium - Casey stoner (1st) Adrea Dovizioso (2nd) Marco Simoncelli and his hair (3rd)]

With a test day taking place at Brno tomorrow with the new 2012 bikes,  MotoGP will be back in the USA in two weeks time.

Next up, Indianapolis, Indiana, aka the brickyard. 

MotoGP - Japanese Grand Prix is go!

So I may be a bit late on the subject but I thought I might as well make a blog post about my own opinions on the go ahead of the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix in October.

I’m happy the GP is going ahead not just because I’m a fan and I like watching it but like the report from the ARPA said it IS safe to go there, so if it’s safe why shouldn’t they go race? That’s what they do.

I know Japan is still recovering and I agree no Grand Prix should have been held at the start of the year but surely now the benefits of hosting would be a lot greater?

After making a comment about radiation level’s [at the Motegi circuit] on Twitter, I got linked to an informative website. Now I’m not claiming I know much about radiation levels because I don’t but I do know a bit and it seems to be accurate enough (feel free to correct me If I’m wrong.)

My comment on Twitter went along the lines of… ‘If you consider how many x-rays most of the riders have had, the amount they’ve flown and will continue to fly around the world, especially on the long flight to get to Japan, as well as general radiation we are all exposed to daily, then they’ve more likely than not already been exposed to more radiation then they will for their duration of the weekend.’ … Which, according to the chart is an understatement.

[Take from this website i got linked to]

Casey stoner still claims even though it’s been deemed safe to stay, ride and eat in the area he still won’t be going and it’s up to organisers to figure out what to do.

Well he might change his mind if he doesn’t win any of the next few races (unlikely!)
Saying that, his closest challenger is Jorge Lorenzo who said he wouldn’t go if it wasn’t safe but as far as I am aware hasn’t made a comment since the results came out last week, lucky for some, he’s been holidaying in the Dominican Republic...

N'aww! 

[From Jorge Lorenzo's Facebook page] 

With a short summer break more or less over the MotoGP will be in Brno, Czech Republic, Karel Abraham’s homeland by the end of the week AND Moto2 and 125’s are back, for more exciting, unpredictable racing from the lower classes!