Valentino Rossi put his mark on the 2009 World Championship, took his 102th win and a 50th point lead at Brno on his direct and closest rival and teammate Jorge Lorenzo.
Rossi led the race almost unchallenged from the begining until Lorenzo caught up with him and on the sixth lap and overtook the Italian at turn 3, Rossi followed Lorenzo for a lap and at the same turn went in to pass him and Lorenzo in response to Rossi’s pass took the wide line, lost his front and crashed out leaving Rossi to cruise to the finish line uncontested.
Second place went to Dani Pedrosa and third to Toni Elias who battled it out with Andrea Dovizioso, who had a couple of wild saves and had to settle for fourth.
Loris Capirossi rode to fifth for Suzuki, just 0.
12sec behind Dovizioso, while Nicky Hayden took a solid sixth place.
Colin Edwards was seventh, Alex de Angelis and James Toseland were eighth and ninth, while Randy de Puniet took tenth riding with a broken ankle with seven screws in it.
Chris Vermeulen, Niccolò Canepa and Gabor Talmacsi were 11th, 12th and 13th respectively.
DNF’s included Michel Fabrizio subbing for Mika Kallio in Pramac Ducati pulled out on lap 6 due to arm problems that have been hampering him all this weekend that he picked up in a Superbike crash.
On the penultimate lap, Melandri passed Kallio but the Finn went in too hot and slammed into Melandri’s Hayate, taking them both down, with an angry Kallio taking it out on the innocent Italian.
Brno Race Results:Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap 1.
Valentino Rossi Yamaha 43m08.
991s 2.
Dani Pedrosa Honda + 11.
766s 3.
Toni Elias Gresini Honda + 20.
756s 4.
Andrea Dovizioso Honda + 21.
418s 5.
Loris Capirossi Suzuki + 21.
538s 6.
Nicky Hayden Ducati + 25.
544s 7.
Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha + 25.
676s 8.
Alex de Angelis Gresini Honda + 34.
109s 9.
James Toseland Tech 3 Yamaha + 35.
617s10.
Randy de Puniet LCR Honda + 39.
824s11.
Chris Vermeulen Suzuki + 40.
776s12.
Niccolo Canepa Pramac Ducati + 50.
661s13.
Gabor Talmacsi Scot Honda + 59.
188sDNF’s:Mika Kallio Ducati 20 lapsMarco Melandri Hayate 20 lapsJorge Lorenzo Yamaha 17 lapsMichel Fabrizio Pramac Ducati 5 lapsChampionship Standings after round 11:1 Valentino ROSSI 2122 Jorge LORENZO 1623 Casey STONER 1504 Dani PEDROSA 1355 Colin EDWARDS 1126 Andrea DOVIZIOSO 1077 Randy DE PUNIET 808 Marco MELANDRI 799 Loris CAPIROSSI 7710 Chris VERMEULEN 7211 Alex DE ANGELIS 6812 Toni ELIAS 6313 James TOSELAND 6214 Nicky HAYDEN 5715 Mika KALLIO 3416 Niccolo CANEPA 3217 Sete GIBERNAU 1218 Yuki TAKAHASHI 919 Gabor TALMACSI 8