Rossi and Stoner had made up after a little bit of tension following the Laguna Seca race, which had been four weeks earlier, before the summer break. The return for Brno saw the riders have the benefit of a resurfaced track, at a venue with quite a number of left-right adjacent corner combinations. But the resurfacing meant little when it came to qualifying on Saturday, which was a very wet session and made for a somewhat mixed up leader board.

Stoner had a touch of flu, but it didn’t stop him from making it six pole positions in a row, and twenty in all for Ducati. Rossi was second, as he had been three times previously. Third place went to John Hopkins, back from injury on the Kawasaki, and the first of five men to record their best qualification of the year in the tricky conditions. The others were Alex de Angelis, Anthony West, Shin’ya Nakano and Marco Melandri - the Italian who has three Brno wins in the bank, one as a 16-year-old.

Rizla Suzuki man Chris Vermeulen was fourth, then came de Angelis on the Gresini Honda, which made it five different makes in the top five. West was sixth on the second Kawasaki, another Australian (like Stoner and Vermeulen) who goes well in the wet. Bridgestone tyres therefore filled the top six places, which would prove to be a familiar situation. Randy de Puniet’s LCR Honda in seventh made him the first of the Michelin men, with most of his colleagues at the back.

Nakano was eighth for San Carlo Honda Gresini, with the Japanese rider on this occasion having the benefit of a 2008-09 works spec RCV bike and engine, to provide some testing feedback, and presumably to see how the machine would go on Bridgestones. 35-year-old veteran Loris Capirossi would line up ninth on his Suzuki, to match the GP starts record of Brazilian Alex Barros. It was Loris’ 279th Grand Prix entry, and he was planning to make it to 300 before entertaining any thoughts of retirement.

Sylvain Guintoli was tenth for the Ducati customer Alice Team, whose owner Luís d’Antín had disappeared for apparently shady reasons. The Spaniard is a former 250cc GP rider, with three podium finishes in the mid-1990s, and a best championship result of sixth in 1996. Melandri was eleventh on the second works Marlboro Ducati, with most of the Michelin competitors filling most of the remaining slots.

The US race had seen only one works Repsol Honda in action, and the same was true here. This time Nicky Hayden was out, having injured a heel bone in a Supermoto race, and Dani Pedrosa was back (twelfth) after his German GP crash. Nakano’s use of an HRC bike was presumably due to Hayden’s absence. P13 was filled by Alice rider Toní Elías, the last on Bridgestones. The unlucky Michelin men at the back were Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda), Colin Edwards and James Toseland (both Tech 3 Yamaha) and Jorge Lorenzo. The Spanish rider, a three-time winner at Brno, was 90% fit after his Laguna spill and returned to his Fiat Yamaha at the opposite end of the grid to team-mate Rossi.

Michelin’s unhappy performance was not just about wet weather, as they were also struggling in the dry. The fact that Alice team-mates Guintoli and Elías were fourth and fifth in the race day warm-up session may have hinted at Bridgestone’s advantage. Indeed, Pedrosa’s mentor and manager, former racer Alberto Puig, reportedly tried to get the Michelin runners to agree not to race due to safety concerns, although without success.

Stoner and Rossi had no such worries, but the Australian did opt for a softer rear tyre than his main rival. There was a minor drama when Elías was stuck on the grid for the sighting lap, but the Ducati was brought to life and he joined the field for the start. Stoner was first away, followed by Hopkins, but with Rossi quick to regain second. West took fourth from Vermeulen, and Pedrosa made good progress to emerge sixth. Dovizioso would take seventh from de Puniet, and Guintoli would lose ninth to Capirossi.

Stoner looked a touch quicker than Rossi initially, and would soon establish a gap of around 1.2s as they both moved clear. But a closer group involved Hopkins, West, Vermeulen and Pedrosa. Chris made his way past Anthony, but Kawasaki’s Australian rider repaid the compliment. Dovizioso, de Puniet, Capirossi and Guintoli were followed by Elías, Nakano, de Angelis, Toseland, Edwards, Melandri and Lorenzo.

Stoner was establishing new fastest lap times as Rossi got to four seconds clear of the rest. Vermeulen overtook West on the inside at the left-handed penultimate turn thirteen, to go third behind Hopkins. Before much longer the Suzuki man would get by his former team-mate at turn three, also a left-hander with an immediate right to follow. Meanwhile, the previous lap record holder Capirossi was again going well, and had made passes on Pedrosa, Dovizioso and West to run fifth.

Stoner and Rossi continued at the front, and the race behind became established as a three way affair between Vermeulen, Hopkins and Capirossi. Elías was on the move, having gone by Guintoli, de Puniet and Pedrosa. Next he would pass Dovizioso on the brakes inside the Honda man at the right-looping turn one. West was his next victim, putting the 25-year-old Spaniard up to sixth from his P13 start; and therefore putting the leading customer Ducati well in front of the second works example.

Moments before, twelfth placed de Puniet had crashed out, losing his Honda in a lowside fall which led to the rear spinning away from him; now the drama was at the front. Rossi seemed to be closing in on Stoner again, and suddenly the Australian also crashed out. At turn four, a right-hander, the front of the Ducati went down and again the rear slid away. Casey ended up in the gravel, but got up again and tried to continue. He very soon had to park it, the machine too damaged to continue. Randy was able to resume but he was right at the back.

Following his good start, Michelin rider Pedrosa was now back in the pack and still losing places to his Bridgestone rivals. With Stoner out, and Rossi now well clear of new second man Vermeulen, the World Championship position was looking particularly favourable for the Italian. Riders three, four, five and six in the points were all on Michelins and were all struggling here. Dovizioso was now the best of them, and he was being caught as he led a group in seventh.

Rossi was pretty secure in the lead, so the race was now about second. The dispute there was between Suzuki team-mates, and on this occasion Capirossi seemed to have the best of Vermeulen. Loris had got by Hopkins before also relegating Chris. The Australian almost forced his way back past, on the inside through the left-handed turn eleven, but Capirossi was ahead again at the turn two kink. And now Vermeulen began to drop back as pursuers Hopkins, Elías and West came on stronger.

There was another forceful move as Elías got onto the inside of Vermeulen at the tight turn seven, and the Kawasaki riders would soon follow him. The leaders of this group were now Capirossi and Elías, and this pair would start to stretch a small advantage, with Toní taking over in front of Loris. And again in a reverse of the team trend, West would now pass ‘team green’ partner Hopkins. Meanwhile, Vermeulen would now drop back and come under pressure from behind.

Rossi was in a 16s lead as Elías and Capirossi left the two Kawasaki men behind. A good race for the Spaniard, a Brno winner in 2001, saw him also get clear of the Suzuki rider to the tune of six seconds by the end. Valentino eased off to win by 15s, which was also Yamaha’s tenth with the Fiat livery; and Capirossi was also secure in third. But behind these three there was finally a Honda RC212V coming into the mix.

Dovizioso had been seventh, but the Bridgestone-shod works/customer Honda of Nakano had been progressing behind him. The Japanese rider had earlier passed de Puniet, Pedrosa and Guintoli, and then Shin’ya overtook Andrea at turn one. After that he sped up to Vermeulen, using a slipstream to duplicate his pass braking on the inside at turn one. He then left Chris behind and used the same move on Hopkins and then West, holding off the attempted response. Nakano then established a clear fourth to the end.

The leaders were fairly well spread out in the final stages, at which point Hopkins started to fade. Having run third early on, John now fell back to finish in P11, which meant team-mate West took fifth place, not too far in front of Vermeulen. Late progress by Melandri and de Angelis brought them into the next two places, ahead of Dovizioso. He was just in front of Lorenzo, who had also come from the back, and this pair led the way for Michelin, at the back end of the top ten.

Hopkins stayed ahead of Guintoli at the finish, and then there was a big gap back to the last four, all on Michelins. Toseland had led team-mate Edwards for most of the race, and at the finish he had got clear of the Texan. Pedrosa took the final point, with de Puniet not too far from him despite his earlier tumble. Stoner was the only man not to finish.

Valentino Rossi benefited from the misfortunes of Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa; but even more so, Bridgestone tyres, which were run by the riders who took the top eight places, benefited from the misfortunes of Michelin. The actual machinery didn’t seem to have come into it, as each of the five manufacturers had got a bike in the top five. With this trend in mind, there was some talk of a possible single tyre make rule for 2009. The upshot in this race, coupled with some good riding, was that four of the competitors recorded their best result of the season to date.

Toní Elías had previously taken three podium finishes in the MotoGP class, including a 2006 race win, but the recent US race had been his best of 2008, when he was seventh. His last race into second was at the Turkish race in April last year. Toní led the way for Ducati at Brno, after Casey’s exit, and took the bike’s only top four result that hadn’t gone to the Australian. For Luís d’Antín’s team, in his absence, it was the first podium since Barros in Italy last year.

Third for Loris Capirossi was his first ever podium for Suzuki, and this performance brought to mind his impressive 2006 win here for Ducati, with the result taking the Italian beyond 1600 points for his years in the top GP class. Shin’ya Nakano had once won at Brno on a 250cc Yamaha, and now was fourth for his best result since leaving Kawasaki. It showed what he might have been doing with a full works Honda these last 29 races. The Gresini team have not had a podium result this year, but Nakano matched the results of de Angelis in Italy and Germany.

Anthony West revived his fortunes and future prospects with a career best result in the class, which also matched Kawasaki’s best result of 2008. Having made such as a good start with them when replacing Olivier Jacque last year, the season to date had been disappointing for the 27-year-old Australian. However, there are still rumours that Marco Melandri might take his ride for 2009, with maybe Ducati replacing the Italian with Nicky Hayden.

On the day, Stoner’s crash meant that Rossi doubled his championship lead to fifty points. Leading Michelin rider Pedrosa was unable to capitalise, and remains fifteen down on Stoner. Rossi’s home race is next, and it now seems that any realistic title challenge has all but evaporated. After five years on top, Rossi failed to take a world title in the last two years. He has a total of seven titles already, but an eighth would move him clear into fifth on the all-time list, and in front of John Surtees and Phil Read. Will he take a step closer at Misano?

Standings after twelve races: Rossi 237; Stoner 187; Pedrosa 172; Lorenzo 120; Dovizioso 110; Edwards 102; Vermeulen 99; Hayden 84; Nakano 83; Capirossi 77; Toseland 75; Elías 66.
Yamaha 266; Ducati 212; Honda 210; Suzuki 128; Kawasaki 63.

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