Stoner victorious in Brno in Honda one-two-three

After an early battle with teammate Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo, once Stoner took the lead on lap three he never looked back.

Pedrosa, who had been the pace-setter all weekend, crashed out of the lead on the third lap, leaving the remaining two steps of the podium to be fought over by Andrea Dovizioso, who finished second, and Marco Simoncelli who secured his first podium in the premier class.

Every rider on the grid used the softer option rear tyre for the race, and almost all riders used the harder option front. The only riders who didn’t were Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista, who was chasing down Valentino Rossi for sixth position when he crashed out, and Lorenzo, who led early on before crossing the finish line fourth ahead of his Yamaha teammate Ben Spies.

Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department

“Casey rode a fantastic race today, lapping remarkably consistently to build a lead that until his last lap was over seven seconds, so my congratulations to him and the Repsol Honda Team. It is of course a great shame for Dani after his performance during the last two days, and for Álvaro as he and Suzuki have been showing a lot of promise here. We saw some good battles between Andrea and Marco and also Jorge until the closing stages of the race, and of course it is good to see Marco achieve his first podium in MotoGP. Brno is always a popular race and it demonstrates the strength and appeal of the championship that 155,400 spectators came to the circuit today.”

Tohru Ubukata – General Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department

“Today the climate conditions were almost the same as last year and tyre choice was also the same but today’s race time was six seconds faster than in 2010 which shows the development progress of the teams and their bikes and also the high level of the competition. I am happy with tyre performance today as durability was good and the times were consistent. This weekend the new tyre regulations came into effect and I can say that feedback from riders and teams is positive.”

Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Race Winner

“If we look at points it’s an important win, and it couldn’t work out much better. This weekend has been very very tough and I was a little bit worried going into the race as to how competitive we’d be. During the race I put in a heck of a lot more effort and decided to lay it on the line. Once we had the break I just concentrated on consistency. During qualifying on older tyres we felt a little stronger than the others, and the bike was great by the end of the race and we just brought it home. Again it’s a fantastic result. This one felt good.”

Top ten classification (Sunday 14:00 GMT+2)

Weather: Dry. Ambient 26°C; Track 34-37°C (Bridgestone measurement)