Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner cruised to victory in this afternoon's Brno MotoGP race, crossing the line with seven second advantage after team-mate Dani Pedrosa crashed out of the lead handing the Aussie a clear track of which he took immediate advantage.
Stoner headed an all-Honda podium as the third Repsol bike of Andrea Dovizioso fended off several charges by Marco Simoncelli's satellite Gresini RC212V and the big haired Italian eventually settled for third and his first-ever premier class podium.
Countryman Valentino Rossi equalled his season best performance with a sixth place but, crucially, he was only 12 seconds behind Stoner when he crossed the line which compares very favourably with the gap at Laguna Seca which was more than 30 seconds at the chequered flag. More tellingly, the gap the end of the Mugello race, which is a similarly fast and flowing track, was 26 seconds...
Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo took a disastrous gamble and ran the softest front Bridgestone available. It worked for the first lap as the Spaniard took the lead with the confidence it gave him but a big moment on lap three saw him nearly crash and drop back to third.
As Stoner cleared off and Pedrosa picked himself up, Simoncelli went under crocked Texan Ben Spies for fourth and set off in pursuit of Lorenzo and Dovizioso who had gone past the Spaniard to take second place on lap four.
Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow crashed again into turn one on lap six at a track he had high hopes of a good result while Rossi began to catch Spies, bringing the Rizla Suzuki of Alvaro Bautista with him.
Lorenzo went back to the front with 14 to go but his lack of pace saw Dovizioso and Simoncelli constantly looking for places to get past. This allowed Spies to narrow the gap which, in turn, also dragged Rossi and Bautista close to the podium fight.
Three laps later, Dovizioso found a way back past the Yamaha man and made it stick and Simoncelli did the same thing just a handful of corners later and that completed the podium positions. With six to go, Bautista was looking for a way past The Doctor but asked too much from the front tyre and went down.
Spies got to within half a second of his Yamaha team leader but then backed off the pace which begs the question of team orders. He has a get-out clause as he can say his neck and arm started to hurt but it would all be a bit too convenient. Lorenzo is now 32 points behind Stoner and Spies going past would have made the gap even bigger.
As Rossi made sixth his own, team-mate Hayden was one place further back but a full ten seconds in arrears, just holding off fellow American Colin Edwards. Hiro Aoyama was ninth with Hector Barbera, on the second Gresini bike, rounding out the top ten.
