Rossi, riding the other Fiat-backed works Yamaha YZR-M1 800, was in his third race back after injury, and he was joined in more ways than one. Only four weeks after breaking his left leg in the German Grand Prix, LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet was fit enough to return to action here. But there were new injuries to be had, or so it seemed, as a series of crashes were suffered in practice and qualifying by a number of riders, not helped by mixed weather conditions across the weekend.

The most serious incident was to Álvaro Bautistá, which meant the Rizla Suzuki man missed running in the qualifying session, after needing a CT scan on his injured back. Having achieved a practice time within 107% of the final pole position, and being fit enough to ride, he was allowed to start from last on the grid. Other crashes befell de Puniet, Lorenzo, Rossi, Marco Simoncelli, Héctor Barberá and Nicky Hayden, who hurt his left wrist. All of the above recorded qualifying times, but some didn’t complete the session and therefore didn’t quite reach their full potential.

For Lorenzo this meant he missed his chance of a sixth consecutive pole start, but he maintained his front row record with third. First place was secured by Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda, with the leading Yamaha being piloted to second place by second-string team Tech 3 rider Ben Spies, who was revisiting a track that he had won on last year as a Superbike racer. This was his best yet grid start in GP racing.

Works riders made up the second row, with 2007 winner Casey Stoner fourth for Marlboro Ducati, from Rossi and then Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda). More team-mates followed on, with Colin Edwards seventh for Tech 3, then Hayden with the second Marlboro bike. Páginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati rider Barberá was ninth, once again in front of the more experienced Pramac Ducati duo with the same machine.

More ex-Brno winners were in the next three slots, tenth going to Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), then de Puniet and Simoncelli (San Carlo Gresini Honda). Mika Kallio (Pramac) was in P13, in front of three-time circuit winner Marco Melandri (Gresini), then Alex de Angelis (Interwetten Honda), Aleix Espargaró (Pramac) and finally Bautistá, who had won the 2006 125cc race.

The Suzuki team had endured a trying season so far, with only one top-six result to show for it, and in the event were looking like falling foul of the current engine regulations, allowing only six per rider per season. They had sought special dispensation to increase that number to nine, and it was announced here that the FIM had obliged. They created a loophole which allowed this higher limit for any manufacturer without any recent race wins in dry weather - meaning anyone other than Ducati, Honda and Yamaha (and there are only four makes in action this year). Suzuki’s only win in a decade was in torrential conditions three years ago, and of course there have been no wins for anyone else since Cagiva in 1994.

Those riders who’d had interrupted practice sessions were not helped when the race day warm-up session was held in damp-to-wet conditions. By the time of the race itself the weather was dry, but windy conditions weren’t necessarily helpful. Pole man Pedrosa got away in the lead at the start, heading for the right loop of turn one and the fast left kink of turn two. A tighter left at turn three offers an overtaking opportunity in the braking zone, and both Spies and Lorenzo were close enough to slip through here, the Fiat rider taking the lead.

Stoner was fourth, and Dovizioso was quick to move past Edwards and Hayden for fifth, from Rossi, the Gresini pair, Kallio and de Puniet. Simoncelli and Kallio quickly passed Melandri, while leader Lorenzo was the fastest man round on lap one. Second time through, Pedrosa re-passed Spies on the inside for turn three, with the first five riders already starting to move clear of the main field behind them. Capirossi was the first man to exit the race when he crashed, and he would explain that an early clash with Rossi had bent his clutch lever.

With a new fastest lap going to second man Pedrosa, team-mate Dovizioso moved up to fourth in front of Stoner. Spies was on Dani’s tail, and the new fastest lap went to him next. Leading the pursuit, Hayden moved up to sixth with a move on Edwards on the inside for turn three. Rossi was able to do the same thing to his former team-mate at the same place soon after. Then Dovizioso fell when he lost the front end, the Honda spinning in the path of those following, all of whom managed to avoid getting collected. Andrea was able to continue, but only to pull into the pits.

Lorenzo started setting successive fastest laps, his lead over Pedrosa growing all the time. But at the same time, Spies and Stoner were falling even further behind the two Spaniards. Rossi overtook Hayden at turn three for fifth, as Edwards started to lose touch with the two former champions. Stoner closed down a bit of a gap to Spies, then was able to move ahead on the brakes into the right-hander at turn five. Eighth man Simoncelli was not too far from Edwards, but was now clear of the rest. Kallio had passed Melandri but would soon crash, then it was de Puniet, Espargaró, the place swapping Barberá and de Angelis, followed by Bautistá.

Lorenzo’s pace took his advantage over Pedrosa from two-seconds to about 3.5s with seven laps remaining. By the final lap it was beyond five-seconds, and another win was secure. Stoner was well out of touch with Pedrosa and creeping out of range of Spies, but meanwhile Rossi was consistently a second a lap slower than his team-mate, leading to speculation about whether the Yamaha had picked up damage in the contact with Capirossi - or maybe that the number of right-handers was a factor on his injured leg, unlike at the last two tracks.

Behind the first four, Rossi still finished well clear of works team rival Hayden, who was similarly comfortable next to seventh finisher Edwards. The contest for eighth raged in the late stages, with Simoncelli getting closed down by the next group, now headed by de Puniet. Melandri had dropped a couple of places by the time he followed Barberá back past de Puniet. Melandri then got past Simoncelli on the inside for turn three, with Barberá also going through. Melandri managed to edge away, but Barberá still had Simoncelli and de Puniet all over him, with Bautistá not too far off.

The last couple of laps saw de Puniet pass Simoncelli for tenth, and saw Barberá pressing Melandri for eighth, these four finishing in that order. Two corners from home, the heavy braking left at turn thirteen saw Bautistá crash out of twelfth, which therefore went to Espargaró, followed home by last man de Angelis. With Hiroshi Aoyama due to do a test ride prior to a possible return to the action next time out, this might have been, for the time being, a final MotoGP outing for de Angelis.

Jorge Lorenzo’s seventh win of the season was also the 50th for a Spanish rider in the top class of GP racing, and his tally of twelve puts him second on that list, behind former champion Álex Crivillé. It also gave him an increased points advantage of 77. He celebrated the victory with a trip onto a handy golf green, only to mess up an apparently easy one-shot putt. Dani Pedrosa was best of the rest again, whilst Casey Stoner took his tally of points in the class beyond the 1100 mark, and made it a fifth podium result in a row to move ahead of non-finisher Andrea Dovizioso. Colin Edwards also reached a landmark in going beyond 1000 points in GP racing.

Brno was also the venue as more decisions for the 2011 season were coming into focus. Rossi was imminently due to announce his expected move to Ducati, with his defection meaning that the Yamaha team had already stopped the Italian from testing any further updates on the current M1. With Spies very likely replacing ‘the Doctor’, it seemed that the Tech 3 Yamaha ride might be won by current Yamaha SBK contender Cal Crutchlow, who had already been in talks with the French squad.

There was word suggesting that 37-year-old Capirossi might be in line to replace Kallio in the Pramac team, extending his long and distinguished GP career by another year. Pedrosa would be staying with Repsol Honda for a sixth year, and an expansion to the grid should see Czech rider Karel Abraham moving up to ride another satellite Ducati in MotoGP for his seventh Grand Prix season. There was no question that 2010 to date has been the year of Jorge Lorenzo.

Standings after ten races: Lorenzo 235; Pedrosa 158; Stoner 119; Dovizioso 115; Rossi 101; Hayden 99; Spies 90; de Puniet 75; Melandri 61; Edwards 57; Simoncelli 54; Barberá 48.
Yamaha 240; Honda 195; Ducati 149; Suzuki 48.

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