MOTOGP RETURNS AFTER A 2-WEEK HIATUS
2010-08-11 17:18:56 Author: admin Source:
After a well-earned two-week summer break, leading Motorcycle Grand Prix Championship (MotoGP) contenders Yamaha will reform at Brno in the Czech Republic this weekend as the second half of the 18-race MotoGP season gets underway. Riders' championship leader Jorge Lorenzo lands in eastern Europe and is ready to step up to the plate to grab his first MotoGP championship honors. Team-mate Valentino Rossi is hoping to be back to his best after the time off has given him further opportunity to recover from the broken leg and injured shoulder.
Lorenzo has won an incredible six out of nine races so far this season and signed off for the summer break in the best possible frame of mind, having won commandingly at the U.S. Grand Prix last time out. The Spanard has spent time fitness training and relaxing in the Dominican Republic during the holidays. He has three wins at Brno to his name, one in 125cc and two in 250cc, but he has had little luck there in MotoGP and last year he crashed out when sparring for the lead with Rossi.
Rossi is definitely the man to beat in Brno with an impeccable record here. It started with his first ever victory in 125cc back in 1996, since then he has gone on to take a further six wins at this track, five in MotoGP and consecutively for the last two years. The Italian made a sensational return to the podium at Laguna Seca only seven weeks after breaking his leg, but he was not yet back to peak physical condition.
Honda MotoGP horde will be led by the Repsol Honda duo of Dani Pedrosa (above left) and Andrea Dovizioso, who currently hold second and third places in the MotoGP Championship. Team-mates Marco Melandri and rookie Marco Simoncelli are also flying high, Melandri on the mend following a recent injury and rookie Simoncelli showing lots of potential at the last few races. Hondas other two MotoGP entries have been troubled by injury. Randy de Puniet is recuperating from the broken leg he sustained at last month's German GP and is hoping to ride this weekend. Rookie Hiroshi Aoyama is still out of action, his place once again taken by Alex de Angelis.
Pedrosa is anxious to get back on track following US GP, where he looked capable of scoring his third victory of the season until he slid out of the lead. Victory in that race would have kept the Spaniard very much in the title hunt, but the tumble leaves him 72 points behind Lorenzo with nine races to go. The championship is not an impossibility, but it is certainly unlikely unless Lorenzo encounters problems. At Brno, Pedrosa has scored two victories (the 125 GP in 2003 and the 250 GP in 2005) and has also stood twice on the podium during his MotoGP career second last year and third in 2006. Dovizioso has yet to taste podium champagne in the MotoGP class at Brno, but he has twice scored top-three finishes at the track in 250s in 2006 and 2007 and is looking forward to another podium chance this weekend.
Melandri (above) and Simoncelli are both keen to get back to work so they can make further progress with the crucial electronics updates they received at the previous race. Melandri was particularly happy to have some time off after the US GP to undergo further physio on the left shoulder he dislocated at June's Dutch TT. Since that fall he hasn't been strong enough to fully exploit the performance of his machine, but he is hopeful that he will be close to 100 per cent fit this weekend. Melandri's record at Brno shows wins in the 125cc in 1998 & 1999 and the 250cc in 2002. Fellow countryman Simoncelli has more recent success at Brno in fact he won on his last visit, taking an impressive 250cc win last August. The former 250cc champion has been showing super speed and aggression during his last few MotoGP rides.
While the vast majority of the MotoGP grid contests their tenth MotoGP race of the 2010 season, de Angelis rides only his third race in the class as a replacement for the injured Aoyama.
Ducati riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden are keen to return to work following a month's time out. Last time out at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Stoner and Hayden both claimed rather optimistic results with second and fifth places. The GP10 has once again proven to a competitive bike, and the riders and the entire team look to carry forward the positive effect from the consistency at the United States GP to this weekend's Czech GP.
Suzuki MotoGP's Álvaro Bautista (above) and Loris Capirossi are both as excited as the rest of the MotoGP circus to return to racing at Brno. The pair have both enjoyed success here in recent seasons. Bautista won at Brno in the 125cc in 2006 and finished second and third in 2008 and 2009 respectively in the 250cc category. He will certainly be aiming to put the memories of the last two MotoGPs behind him, where he was eliminated in both races by other riders. Capirossi has tasted success on the Suzuki GSV-R, as he raced the machine to third place in 2008. The experienced Italian also scored a second place at Brno in a MotoGP event in 2005 and topped the podium in 2006 for Ducati.
