Photographs courtesy of Dorna - click to enlarge

Valentino Rossi only needs to win one more race this season to take the championship again. In fact, he doesn't even need to win at Motegi - all he has to do is finish better than third and the title is his.

Brno is, as has been mentioned elsewhere, a lovely circuit. It has changes of elevation, curves a-plenty and, perhaps most importantly of all, lots of passing opportunities. In short, it has the potential to be one of the best circuits to hold exciting racing, and the fans love it. Not all the riders feel the same, though, including Rossi himself who sees Brno as one of the four circuits he doesn't like.

Qualifying, as has been the case throughout the season, threw up few, if any, surprises. Sete Gibernau, riding strongly all weekend, stormed to a pole position over a second inside the previous lap record and a third of a second quicker than Rossi, the previous incumbent, who could manage no better than fourth on an ultra competitive grid. Nicky Hayden, hanging onto the form that he finally found a few races ago, occupied the second slot while Loris Capirossi fought the big and unwieldy - but damn' fast - Ducati into third. With Rossi heading up the second row, Marco Melandri and Carlos Checa were both relegated to fifth and sixth positions while Alex Barros led John Hopkins and Colin Edwards on the third. Max Biaggi had another disappointing session to qualify tenth on the fourth row, just ahead of Shinya Nakano and his former team-mate Makoto Tamada.

Notable by his absence was Shane Byrne. KTM have abandoned Team KR Proton, despite, it would appear, their contractual obligations, and as a result the likeable and talented Englishman finds himself without a ride and the Roberts team find themselves without an engine supplier. Disappointing behaviour from a company that many hoped might prove to be a breath of fresh air in the established and slightly staid MotoGP establishment.

The race started well, with Rossi slicing through to take the lead immediately. Gibernau slipped in behind with Melandri in third. Nicky Hayden failed to capitalise on his qualifying, ending the first lap in fourth place. Hopkins had his usual excellent start on the Suzuki, though as happens so often his challenge faltered a few laps in while the rest of the field proceeded more or less as they qualified.

Three laps in and Gibernau muscled past Rossi to take and hold the lead in emphatic style. The next nineteen laps saw a titanic battle between the two rivals, with Rossi taking the lead again on lap sixteen, yielding three laps later and then relegating the Spaniard to second again with two laps to go. Melandri, being no shrinking violet, kept up the pressure on his elders as well as remaining heavily involved in a battle with Nicky Hayden, which eventually went in favour of the American, before also being swallowed up by Alex Barros and Loris Capirossi.

Further back down the field, Bayliss, Tamada, Roberts and Nakano all finished within just over half a second in ninth through to twelfth places while Carlos Checa took a lonely eighth on the Ducati behind Colin Edwards. Marco Melandri, having for once been bested by many of his elders, finished sixth, a full seven seconds behind the main pack, the back of which was formed by Nicky Hayden. At this point it got interesting, because there was just over four seconds between fifth placed Hayden and the ultimate winner. A couple of lengths ahead of Hayden, Alex Barros managed to prevail to take fourth.

Fourth? That means there are only three bikes left but there had been four in the fight. So what happened?

What happened is this. Sete Gibernau and Valentino Rossi fought hard and close for twenty one and a half laps before it all went horribly wrong for the Spaniard. Three bends from the end the Honda simply stopped, having run out of fuel. Yes, while Gibernau was still really in with a shout at the top podium slot, his legendary luck struck again and the fuel management system proved incapable of managing fuel and the Honda was left sucking fumes. Which elevated Loris Capirossi into second place and left Max Biaggi with a well deserved third, having shown a few flashes of his old brilliance during the race.

So there we are. The Championship is pretty well sown up now, though second place is still anybody's. Max Biaggi has come from nowhere to put himself in second place ahead of Melandri while Colin Edwards has now climbed to fourth ahead of Gibernau - the man we all thought might be The Chosen One for this season, the one to knock Rossi off the top of the tree. Now the Spaniard is at risk of being overhauled by Barros and Hayden while Capirossi has also moved within striking distance. The race was more interesting than many have been in the past, especially at the front, and the attrition rate was very low with just Gibernau and Jeremy McWilliams failing to finish - the Ulsterman retiring his Proton KR just fifteen laps in, presumably suffering from the lack of spares resulting from the KTM deal falling apart.

Next race is at the Motegi twin ring. Rossi again claims not to like the circuit but has always gone well there. So it may well be that in two weeks' time he'll have taken the title and the only fight left will be to see who comes second. But in reality, that's all remaining to be decided anyway, isn't it?

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