g06lnaka201r.jpgTalk around the paddock at Brno over the weekend suggests that qualifying practice for 2007 will undergo a change with qualifying tyres becoming a regulated commodity. Vocal opposition to how qualifying is being conducted now, is building strongly. After the sensational record breaking times laid down over the weekend, how did the first critical race after the summer break pan out?

Left shaking his head at the time Loris put down three quarters of a way through qualifying, Valentino produced the lap of the season to steal pole position. No one could stop Loris in the race, however. A first corner to flag dominant victory will have the Michelin tyre boffins shaking in their boots as the new Bridgestone tyres were rolled out on the track in anger for the first time. Loris, never allowed to be the smoothest rider by the Ducati, was on rails as he powered away to a comprehensive win. Pulling out 0.5 secs a lap, he built a commanding 7 second lead and cruised home to the tears and joy of his team. The questions now being asked, what if Loris wasn’t caught up in the big crash and was able to race injury free for the whole season.

Loris Capirossi – “This has been an unbelievable weekend for me! After a difficult Friday, we did a great job with strong support from Bridgestone. Yesterday, I could see my rhythm on race tyres was really good, a little better than everyone else’s, so I told my team that my dream was to make a great start, push hard during the first few laps, make a gap and I saw from my pitboard that my advantage was growing bigger and bigger. I would like to say from my heart thanks to the team and all the sponsors who believe in us.”

For the championship, Valentinos second place, Pedrosas third and Haydens struggle with setup ninth place has narrowed the gap between the leaders. 5 races, 38 points. Are we building for a Valencia show down with Pedrosa fighting for a race and championship victory? The thought is a mouth watering prospect.

Valentino Rossi - “It was a good race today and I am very happy with the weekend. Obviously starting from pole position you hope that you can win but today Loris had a completely different pace to the rest of us and I couldn’t believe the gap he made! We weren’t perfect today and we still had a few problems, but anyway I was able to do a good race and fight hard to the end. I had a great battle with Pedrosa with many good overtakes, which was great fun, especially since I finally managed to finish in front of him! Even though I didn’t win today this is a very important result for the championship; we are now third and we’ve gained on Pedrosa and Hayden. After this weekend the situation is much clearer for us with the bike and the tyres and now we have two days of testing, during which we have some new things to try in order to help us be even more competitive for the final five races”

Dani Pedrosa continues to impress with a fighting third place, not only the result was impressive, but the way he took the fight to Rossi. Pedrosa is not short on talent and he is definitely not short on agression when required. His silky smooth 250 riding has masked the dogged determination that was evident in this race. He fought corner to corner with Vale which is possibly the best way to get inside Rossis head. hardly anyone takes it up to Rossi when he gets past them, Dani hit back and often and this is a tactic that others should learn and emulate as much as possible to help find a chink in the Rossi armor.

Dani Pedrosa - “I think we did a great race and third place is very good for me because I started from ninth on the grid. I made a good start but I think it could have been even better and I could have made up even more places into the first corner. When I caught Valentino I was waiting because it was very early in the race. By that point though, Capirossi was already gone – he was too fast for us today. So we were battling for second place and we did some very good overtaking manoeuvres, some of them very aggressive. We were pushing very hard. With three laps remaining I made a mistake at one corner and lost a second that I couldn’t recover, so for the last lap I decided to finish third. I’m looking forward to the next races.”

Casey Stoner, Kenny Roberts and Shinya Nakano all performed well. Marco Melandri looked to make a run for the top three but faded not long after getting past Hayden for fourth.

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Race results -

  1. Loris Capriossi, 22 laps, 43:40.145
  2. Valentino Rossi, -4.902 seconds
  3. Dani Pedrosa, -8.012 seconds
  4. Kenny Roberts, -14.800 seconds
  5. Marco Melandri, -15.025 seconds
  6. Casey Stoner, -15.699 seconds
  7. John Hopkins, -16.775 seconds
  8. Shinya Nakano, -16.942 seconds
  9. Nicky Hayden, -17.061 seconds
  10. Colin Edwards, -19.435 seconds
  11. Toni Elias, -22.215 seconds
  12. Chris Vermeulen, -23.978 seconds
  13. Makoto Tamada, -24.967 seconds
  14. Randy De Puniet, -28.961 seconds
  15. Carlos Checa, -29.296 seconds
  16. Alex Hofmann, -29.801 seconds
  17. James Ellison, -62.982 seconds
  18. Ivan Silvia, -104.775 seconds
  19. Jose Luis Cardoso, -16 laps, DNF, mechanical

Championship standings -

  1. Hayden, 201 points
  2. Pedrosa, 176 points
  3. Rossi, 163 points
  4. Melandri, 161 points
  5. Capirossi, 151 points
  6. Stoner, 101 points
  7. Roberts, 92 points
  8. Edwards, 90 points
  9. Hopkins, 83 points
  10. Nakano, 75 points
  11. Tamada, 67 points
  12. Elias, 64 points
  13. Vermeulen, 61 points
  14. Gibernau, 58 points
  15. Checa, 54 points
  16. De Puniet, 23 points
  17. Hofmann, 21 points
  18. Ellison, 20 points
  19. Cardoso, 8 points

Next race - Sepang, Malaysia… Loris to double up? put your bets on now.