Monday 17th August 2015

MotoGP Czech Republic: PH2

What a season it's squaring up to be...

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After a stunning qualifying lap, Lorenzo appeared the man to watch in Brno. But after Valentino stuck in a decent qualifying, Jorge wasn't going to have it all his own way. Well, until Rossi made a shocker of a start...

With Marquez and Lorenzo putting clear air between them and the chasing pack on lap one, Rossi was stuck behind Dovi and in danger of losing the leaders. Third place won't cut it for The Doctor anymore, but at least Dani wasn't a rival as a huge practice highside meant the other Repsol man was riding injured.

By the time Rossi made it past Dovi he had 2.5 seconds between him and the leaders, which didn't bode well and even the weather didn't seem to be in Rossi's camp as the rain clouds stayed away. Could his hard tyre choice help?

A strong mid-race by Lorenzo saw him break Marquez's challenge while behind Rossi simply couldn't go fast enough to catch either rider up. A win for Lorenzo, second for Marc and Rossi third. Not a great race (although Dani rode like a demon), but with both Yamaha riders now on equal points in the championship the rest of the season should be far more entertaining...

Moto2 and after championship leader Zarco made good his escape, the race was a fairly tame affair. Lowes recovered well to finish fifth but it wasn't exactly a classic.

In Moto3, Brit Danny Kent was looking to forget the disaster from the last round but a terrible start saw him well down the order for the first lap. A red flag and restart saw him have a second attempt and this time he made a far better fist of it, taking the lead on the first lap. After some pretty brutal racing, Kent finished in seventh while McPhee was tenth, however both were within spitting distance of the race winner.

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Results:

MotoGP:
1st: Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP)
2nd: Marquez (Repsol Honda Team)
3rd: Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP)

Moto2:
1st: Zarco (Ajo Motorsport)
2nd: Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40)
3rd: Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS)

Moto3:
1st: Antonelli (Ongetta-Rivacold)
2nd: Bastianni (Junior Team Gresini Moto3)
3rd: Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo)

Brit watch:
Cal Crutchlow (MotoGP) - DNF
Bradley Smith (MotoGP) - 7
Scott Redding (MotoGP) - 12
Eugene Laverty (MotoGP) - DNF
Sam Lowes (Moto2) - 5
John McPhee (Moto3) - 10
Danny Kent (Moto3) - 7

Previous rounds:
MotoGP USA
MotoGP Qatar
MotoGP Argentina
MotoGP Jerez
MotoGP France
MotoGP Italy
MotoGP Spain
MotoGP Assen
MotoGP Germany
MotoGP Indianapolis

[PhantomPH]

For reasons best known to itself, my Sky+ box chose not to record any of this weekends Moto GP whilst I was away. Doesn't sound like I missed a classic, but still...

[dc2rr07]

PhantomPH said:

For reasons best known to itself, my Sky+ box chose not to record any of this weekends Moto GP whilst I was away. Doesn't sound like I missed a classic, but still...

Not the best of races we have seen this season and I feel the championship slipping away from Rossi unfortunately.

[smilo996]

Put the afternoon aside for the MotoGP race thinking we were going to get a race.

Typically ballsy performance by Pedrosa, who otherwise is behaving like Marquez's roadblock.

You can admire Lorenzo, he has come back is robotically strong on consistent laps, amazing but he is the Kimi of MotoGP without the personality. His idea of racing is not to race.

Good to see Bradley Smith continuing to improve consistently.

The idea that Cal and Redding are on full factory Honda's is clearly a joke.

Ducati have gone from 35 to 18 to 13 secs from the leader. Still along way to go though.

looks like the run up to end of season could well be fun.