Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi finally broke Giacomo Agostini's record of 159 premier class podiums at the Brno MotoGP race yesterday, taking his 160th rostrum spot in a weekend which saw him extend his series lead to 50-points.

After leading the race from the third corner on lap one, team-mate Jorge Lorenzo passed Rossi with six laps to go but then, as The Doctor lined up a move on the brakes at the same corner one lap later, the Spaniard folded the front of his YZR-M1 and crashed out.

“This is a very important victory for us! Jorge had shown all weekend that he was very strong and, when we still weren’t feeling perfect after the warm-up, we decided to make one more small modification to improve the feeling with the front and the result was brilliant; my Yamaha really flew today," said Rossi.

"I got a good start and I was able to ride exactly how I wanted, using all of the track to get the best lines. At the end, when Jorge passed me, I thought that the fight was starting and I was really ready for it, but then he made a mistake and crashed. Of course I’m sorry; it’s really bad for him but I have to say that it’s great for us because now we have an advantage of 50 points with six races to go.

"However it would be very stupid to relax now because Jorge is very strong and for sure we expect another hard fight with him in Indianapolis. Today I arrived at the top of the all-time podium list and I’m very proud of this, especially here at Brno where I took my first victory 13 years ago."