OK, so as puns go, even as far as my puns go, that's pretty weak. But hey - if you can do better then we want to hear from you. Drop me a mail and tell me why you should be writing for us and well see what we can do.

Now, on to the GP. At this stage of the season, with just seven races to go, the championship contenders should be head down, piling on the pressure and trying to build on the slim lead they normally have. Which is why we were so surprised to see Sylvain Guintoli heading the timesheets on Friday and taking that lead through to the end of practice 2 on Saturday. The Tech3 Yamaha team have struggled on their Dunlop tyres all season - in fact Dunlop are calling it a day at the end of the year - so it's ironic that now things have suddenly come together for them. The rest of practice, apart from the appearance of the likeable Anglo-Frenchman at the top of the timesheets, was pretty much business as usual, with proceedings being dominated by Casey Stoner on the Ducati missile. Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden were both there or thereabouts for much of the time, and it was great to see Loris Capirossi starting to return to form. John Hopkins was up at the sharp end, and both Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards made strong showings at the beginning, though their tailing off performance as the weekend progressed was an ominous sign.

Practice and qualifying, as I have said many times before, are different things. And when it came down to it, the Bridgestone shod Ducati of Casey Stoner swept all before it on the way to putting the young Australian on pole again. But not by much. It seems that the beautiful, flowing Brno circuit suits the Repsol Hondas as well, because Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa lined up on the front row next to Stoner. Hayden finally seems to have gelled with the Honda and is now not only looking as though he's enjoying himself again but also getting the sort of results we know he's capable of. Row two was headed up by John Hopkins on the Suzuki. Hopper has recently announced that he's going to Kawasaki next year, so out qualifying his potential team-mate (or the bloke whose ride he's pinching), Randy de Puniet, would have been important to him. Not as important as being ahead of sixth placed Valentino Rossi, though. The Doctor's tyre woes are continuing, with Michelin and Yamaha seemingly unable to work with each other on a consistent footing this year. Loris Capirossi, who is sliding into Hopper's still warm seat next year, headed up row three from his new team-mate Vermeulen and Colin Edwards. And rounding out the top ten, Guintoli, whose ride may well be usurped by Edwards next year as the Tech3 team welcome James Toseland from the SBK paddock, as well as changing tyre suppliers.

Race day was hot and clear, as is blessedly often the case for racing in Brno. Now although the dry track is nice and grippy, when it's hot we see tyre wear go up as well as power going down. And Brno has hills. They don't look especially steep on TV, but having walked around the circuit I can assure you that they really are steep. And those hills need serious horsepower, as well as inch perfect lines to maximise drive.

Lights out and Casey Stoner made the most of his pole position, nipping straight off into the lead. But it was Hopper who really made progress, dropping into second place ahead of Pedrosa and Hayden who had immediately started their own personal scrap. In fifth place, Loris Capirossi had made a great start as well, getting ahead of Rossi who had stayed in sixth while de Puniet had gone backwards into the grips of Colin Edwards. Partway through the second lap, Hayden made a beautiful move on Pedrosa to take third place and remind us that he actually has that number one on his bike for a reason. On the same lap Colin Edwards lost the front while pushing hard and went gravel surfing. Though he managed to restart the bike his race was run and he retired.

The battle for fifth got extremely interesting as Rossi and Capirossi briefly had a tussle reminiscent of their great battles last season. But Rossi really does have rubber problems this year, and with grip fading from his front it was left to young Chris Vermeulen to challenge the Ducati rider for that fifth spot. Meanwhile, Randy de Puniet had joined in and looked strong for a while but Rossi was able to stay in front.

Further back, Anthony West was going well, as was a still not fully healed Toni Elias. Sylvain Guintoli rode an herculean race, his Dunlop tyres proving to be well up to the job for around sixteen laps before going off the boil and forcing him back down the field.

To be honest, that's about it. It was as static as racing at this sort of speeds can be, and by the end there wasn' t really any racing as such going on. Just a series of very fast motorbikes going past in glorious isolation. To put it into perspective, by the end of the first lap, Stoner was over half a second clear. And he just kept on extending that lead. By the endof the race, having eased off considerably, there was a yawningeight second gap back to second placed Hopkins, himself five seconds clear of Hayden. Pedrosa was nearly three seconds behind his team-mate and a second anda half clear of Vermeulen, who led Capirossi by two seconds. Rossi was three seconds further back, though justhalf a second in front of de Puniet, but the we had to wait nine seconds for Barros to come in and another three for tenth placed Carlos Checa.

As a masterclass in machine control, precise riding and simple efficiency, this race was perfect. Casey Stoner didn't put a tyre wrong all weekend and has just about guaranteed that he will be the first 800cc champion. He goes to Misano with an almost unassailable sixty point lead. Rossi needs to win every race with Stoner off the podium and even then it'll be tight.

But it doesn't really make for very exciting racing.

Results

1 Casey Stoner (Ducati)
2 John Hopkins (Suzuki)
3 Nicky Hayden (Honda)
4 Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
5 Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)
6 Loris Capirossi (Ducati)
7 Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
8 Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki)
9 Alex Barros (Ducati)
10 Carlos Checa (Honda)

Championship Points

1 Casey Stoner 246
2 Valentino Rossi 186
3 Dani Pedrosa 168
4 Chris Vermeulen 124
5 John Hopkins 124
6 Marco Melandri 113
7 Colin Edwards 93
8 Nicky Hayden 89
9 Loris Capirossi 87
10 Alex Barros 83

SB