 1 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 The three week summer break is over and racing returns to Brno. The circuit was built in 1987 and is located close to the Czech city of Brno at Kohoutovice. It is 5.403 km long with 8 right turns and 5 left. The crowd on race day was 128,000. |
 2 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 From the plan view the circuit looks boring but there are many elevation changes that make the circuit one of the better ones on the calendar. Valentino won here last year when Casey Stoner crashed out of the lead. |
 3 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 In a shock announcement, Casey Stoner withdrew from Brno and the following two rounds to give his health a chance to recover. He was replaced by Finnish rider Mika Kallio. There is speculation at the moment whether Casey will return at all. |
 4 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Mika Kallio during Friday practice on Casey's bike. He was immediately faster than Hayden on the other factory Ducati. |
 5 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 In a press conference at Brno on Friday newly appointed HRC President Tetsuo Suzuki announced that Honda had reached a basic agreement to retain the services of Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso. Nothing is signed as yet. |
 6 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Also announced was that popular Spanish rider Alvaro Bautista was moving to the factory Suzuki team in 2010 replacing under performing Chris Vermeulen. |
 7 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 The best news of the lot though was that Marco Melandri has signed with Gresini Honda for 2010 and will get the factory-spec Honda of Tony Elias. No word yet if Elias has secured a ride for 2010. Marco Simoncelli takes the other Gresini seat displacing Alex De Angelis. |
 8 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Lorenzo was fastest in FP1 and FP2 but when it really mattered Valentino finished on pole (despite crashing late in the session). Rossi broke the existing qualifying record that he set on a 990 with qualifying tyres. This is the first such record to be broken on the spec-Bridgestone tyres supplied this season. Rossi had a sore thumb but was otherwise uninjured. |
 9 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 During morning warmup, Lorenzo was in devastating form. However, after warmup, Rossi's team made a small "modify" to the front end to make his bike perfect - and he was already very fast. Hayden was the fastest Ducati but still only ninth. |
 10 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Front row: Valentino ROSSI, Jorge LORENZO, Dani PEDROSA Second row: Tony ELIAS, Colin EDWARDS, Andrea DOVIZIOSO Race Conditions: Dry, Air temp 29°, Ground temp 45° |
 11 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Rossi gets a good start but Pedrosa gets a better one and leads into turn 1. Lorenzo bogs down slightly and settles into fourth behind Tony Elias (24). Rossi overtakes Pedrosa two turns later and takes the lead. |
 12 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 At the end of lap 1 Rossi is in front and Lorenzo has moved into third. |
 13 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Pedrosa hangs onto second place for the first three laps but Lorenzo is clearly the quicker. |
 14 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 During lap 3, Lorenzo moved past Pedrosa and started chasing after Rossi. Rossi protected his .5 second lead until lap 16. |
 15 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 For the next twelve laps, the pair quickly leave Pedrosa behind. |
 16 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 It looked like becoming another classic last lap confrontation between the pair. Isn't it wierd how Rossi is the common denominator in these confrontations? Rossi/Stoner, Rossi/Pedrosa, Rossi/Lorenzo, Rossi/Melandri, Rossi/Gibernau, Rossi/Biaggi. |
 17 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Pedrosa dropped back to a lonely third nearly 15 seconds behind by lap 18. The two in front were lapping a full second/lap quicker. |
 18 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 On lap 16, Lorenzo sets the fastest lap of the race (1'56.670) and passes Rossi but Rossi easily matches his pace. |
 19 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Lorenzo leads for one lap but is riding on the limit. On lap 17, Rossi makes a half-hearted attempt at a pass at turn 3. Lorenzo attempts to out brake Rossi, loses control and low sides out of the race. His air bag inflated which saved him from injury but the bag did not deflate as it was supposed to. His bike was wrecked so that it didn't matter anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIHG2qPv2YQ |
 20 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Rossi then dropped his pace by a second a lap and cruised home. He said he was a tourist for the last five laps. |
 21 1 Rossi wins, Czech MotoGP Race 2009 |
 22 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 With Lorenzo crashing, Pedrosa moved to second and Elias got his first podium of the season. A feature of the Brno round was the uniforms worn by the stunningly attractive girls. |
 23 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 At the press conference Elias said that he has podiums but no ride for next year, others have rides but no podiums. He said, "I want to know how many riders don't get podiums and every year have a bike? People have to think a little bit" and then points to his head. |
 24 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 It was another excellent ride by Nicky Hayden who seems to be able to run mid-pack now. Melandri took out Kallio two laps from the end. Melandri tried a difficult inside pass but Kallio was on a faster line and crashed into Melandri. Vermeulen does his chances for 2010 no good by coming 11th. He says he's willing to ride for free next year - the mark of a desperate man. |
 25 Round 11 - Brno, Czech Republic, Sunday, 16 August, 2009 Valentino now has a 50 point advantage with six races to go; mathematically possible to lose but not likely. He can afford to replace an engine and take a ten point penalty where others can't. This is another ratbag F1-style rule introduced at this round - five engines allowed for the remaining seven races. If Lorenzo blows an engine he drops a further 10 points behind - this is stupid and unfair. |
